July fireworks... Getting kicked by a three year old... and better curls

Okay so first off, YAY finally a new blog post. Things have been a little boring around here, so I'm having to combine a few things to make a post. Huuummmm out of the three I wonder which one you want to hear about most? Well I'm starting in order.


July fireworks

In most cases this would be called 4th of July fireworks, but since the people of Bremerton have been setting them off every night since the month started (I'm not kidding, I heard some last night), I'm going to stay with July fireworks. I'm really not sure what the policy is around here, about shouting off your own fireworks, but a lot of people were doing it.

Officially we went to see them on the 3rd in Poulsbo. We heard that they were letting people park at the movie theater for free to see the fireworks, and that the theater was a great place to view them, because the fireworks were being set off down by the bay. So we get there, and face our car toward the bay. We check online as to when they are going to start (really should have done that before leaving), and it's not until 10:15. WHAT?? Okay, but that make sense and here's why. Since we are in the northwest, we have longer days in the summer then the rest of the U.S., and shorter in the winter. Like Alaska haveing sunlight all day in the summer (all 24hr), and little to no light in the winter. Here it isn't that extreme, but the sun raises here around 5:30 and set at 9:30 (ish) (during the summer anyways). So yes I guess the waiting until 10:15 makes sense. We saw a lot of fireworks while waiting, because of random people setting them off.

10:15 comes around, and all of us get out of the car, and move to the grass, and we wait. They didn't end up starting until 10:30 (I guess it's a good thing I made Olivia take a nap earlier). So they finally set them off, and we can't see them very well, because instead of setting them off down by the water, they were setting them off a few buildings down for us, and those buildings were blocking the view. YUP!

We decided to head home early, because we weren't seeing much.

On the 4th we were happy to hear that they were going to set off the fireworks in downtown Bremerton. We were able to see them from our house. Yay, a lot better, and they set them off earlier. I guess if we would have known that in the first place, than we wouldn't have gone to Poulsbo.

That night was awful though. We went to bed around 10, and can't get to sleep until after 12, all because of those crazy people and their fireworks. There were also a lot of sirens. Great!

So yeah that was our 4th :P


Getting kicked by a three year old

So a few days ago (I think it was the 2nd), I was downstairs (in the basement) and I hear Nathaniel crying. Now this was not a normal I'm upset cry, this one was an "I think someone is trying to kill me" kind of cry. I rush upstairs and find Nathaniel, holding his month, and blood all over his hands, so my first reacting is "What in the world just happened?" and Nathaniel's response is "Olivia kicked me." I'm standing there thinking, okay there is no way that is true, she's three, and you're seven. So I ask Darien (mean while I'm getting Nathaniel to rinse out his month), and he saids he didn't see. WHAT THE CRAP... he was in the room, he is my only liable witness, and he doesn't know. So I get Nathaniel cleaned up, but from what I can tell (there was still a lot of blood), he only cut his lip. "Well how did that happen?" I asked "I was laying on the couch and she kicked me so hard that I rolled off and hit the coffee table." Okay that makes more sense, but I'm still not sure I believe it. "Did her kick make you fall, or were you trying to be dramatic?" His only response was... "What?"

Yeah I didn't get anything else out of anyone about it, so I just let it go. Two days later, the side of his face was really swollen, so I take another look, and wow... from what I could see it looked as if his gums were scraped up around his front teeth. So that's why there was so much blood. I ended up taking him to the doctor, and I am happy to report that he will heal, but it will take a few weeks. I still don't really know what happened. Maybe Olivia is strong enough to kick him off the couch.

This is Nathaniel on the 4th. As you can see, his face is swollen (on his right side, your left). He wasn't feeling to good that night, and he didn't want to eat his pizza. I ended up making him soup, and I'm glad he was able to eat that.

Better curls

I've always had wavy hair, but it mostly frustrated me, because it was so hard to get any of my waves or curls to show. In order to get them to show I had to use a lot of moisturizer, if I didn't and I just let it dry without it, my hair would get frizzy. This also got worse when I moved back to the west cost (because of climate change).

Back in January I went to Sally's and told the lady (who was working there at the time), all of the problems I was having. She recommended I try Brazilian Tech Keratin Kurl. She said that she had tried it, and that it really helped her with her moisture problems. Keratin Kurl formula is for curly/wavy hair, and they also have a formula for straight. At the time she mentioned that it was sulfate free, but I didn't really know what that meant.

It turns out that sulfates are a fuller, that most shampoos have in them, but they are known to cause dryness and skin irritation. Wow, so yeah... Why are they in my shampoo?

The bottle (the new shampoo) ended up costing me $8.99, and I have never in my life spent that much on a bottle of shampoo... so I was really hoping that it would work. I am happy to report that it did, and really well. From the first use I had curls showing up that I didn't even know I had. The bottle ended up lasting me about two months, so I'm fine with paying the price. This also had me looking at all of my products like soap, lotion, deodorant, ext... to see how many more of them had sulfate in them. Guess what... all of them did. So that's why my skin is always dry. I really feel like I need to switch all of them now.

Legates' 4th of July Adventure...

I'm sure you have all heard the saying "Getting there is half the fun." Well I don't think you have to go a great distance (or any distance at all) in order for it to be true. I think of it more as the journey to a goal (not necessarily a big one, but a goal none the less). Like potty training your child (yeah all of you Moms know just what I am talking about). Your goal is to get your child off Diapers, and use the potty EVERY time he or she needs to go. On this Journey there are many (MANY) ups and downs, but so worth it in the end.

Okay so our 4th wasn't that crazy, but it got me thinking in how we work so hard just to accomplish a goal or a task, and we sometimes think "Why in the world did I have to go through all of that just to get this one thing done?" But I think it makes that one thing more worth it in the end.

Our goal was to watch fireworks at Summit Lake camp grounds with our Church. Our church is having a youth camp all of this week at Summit Lake (it's about an hour and a half drive). Our kids were not signed up for the camp, but the church invited everyone to come the first night for fireworks, and since we weren't really sure where to go for fireworks this year, it was the perfect solution.

The only problem was we weren't sure when to leave... We didn't know what activities they had planned there, and we also didn't want to intrude on all of the real campers (there were 9 churches staying there, and we also didn't know everyone... I have really bad social skills).  :)  So because we were unsure of when to leave, and unsure of how to spend our day, there was some sitting around the house at first. After lunch (around 1pm) is when a great idea popped into my head. "Lets take the kids to the arcade."  "You mean Dave and Busters?" (yes that is the only arcade around us... but the kids love it soooo much)  "Yeah, we can spend an hour or 2 in there... Hit the road, and get dinner on the way somewhere. This way we'll only be a couple of hours early"... (a couple of hours before the fire works that is) "And that way if there isn't much to do, it won't be so bad."  "Okay sounds good to me, lets go."

The math in my head was like this... Get to D&B @2pm and spend about 2 hours... Leave and hit the road at 4pm... Since it's an hour and a half drive that should put us there at 5:30pm, but since we planned on stopping for dinner that should put us there at 6:30 - 7pm ish... Yeah that sounds about right.

So we get to the mall, and the parking is lovely (yeah our mall... the Arundel Mills Mall... Doesn't have the best parking). We find an okay spot, and walk into the mall. It was packed (really packed). I wanted to go to Payless, and get Olivia some shoes that fit her (she grows out of shoes so fast). I said goodbye to Jeremy saying that I would meet him in about 10mins. Now Arundel mills is a really big mall, and it's in the shape of an oval, (so you can do laps around it?) and the Payless is at the opposite end from D&B. I kept getting behind the slowest people. I was trying to fast walk it, and just hurry up and pick a pair of shoes already. Everyone else was just taking their time... The way I see it there are 3 speeds in walking there's the I'm in a hurry speed, there's the normal not fast not slow speed, and there's the I'm trying to blow some time speed. What is wrong with everyone? Personally I don't think I have ever used the I'm trying to blow some time walk speed. I just have never needed it, but in that mall on that day everyone was using it. So I finally get to payless... And you know how that store always has really narrow aisles? Well I had the stroller... and most of the aisles had people in them (not people... oh no). I was thinking to myself "I just need a pair of shoes for my daughter, that's all... I really don't feel like squeezing past everyone... So can someone just pass me a pair of shoes for my daughter, size 6?... Anyone?" Note to self... Independence day is not the best day for shopping. So I squeeze through and find a great pair of shoes (success!).

(Hitting the fast forward button) -> -> I get to D&B and find Jeremy and the boys, and we had a blast. We played a lot of games, and won a lot of tickets. I found out that I live with a bunch of crane masters. Yeah we ended up with 6 stuffed animal from the crane game. We ended up with over 3,000 tickets, but as you all know in the arcade world that doesn't buy you much. Oh well we had a lot of fun, and it really didn't matter.

So we hit the road (yay road trip). We get about 8 mi from the camp ground and pass a bunch of great restaurants, like Pizza Hut, A Family Diner, and some fast food. "Hey honey we should stop there and eat"  "Yeah we will, but I want to drive there and see the place first, then we will go and eat."  "Oh okay."  This place was on a very small very narrow and very curvy mountain road, and I thought we were going to die. Jeremy is an awesome driver, but this road was scary (very scary). This road was not wide enough for 2 cars, so when another one came you had to get over, and that's hard to do when you either have a cliff or a drop off on the side of the road (eeeekkk). So we see the place (yay), and then drive back to the Pizza Hut (yay again). We had the worst waitress known to man kind. She wasn't the kind that keeps making mistakes and dropping everything, no she was worse. She was the I really don't want to be here kind, and I really don't care, and can't you guys serve yourselves kind (oh goodie). This Pizza Hut also had the AC on full blast, and we were very cold (freezing).

(Hitting the fast forward again) -> -> We get to the camp ground and it is beautiful (this was the very same camp ground that Jeremy went to as a kid, so he was really happy and reliving some childhood memories). There was a Lake, a pool, playground, basketball court etc... We took the kids to the play ground to play. Later we were told that there was a toddler play area set up in one of the buildings, so I wanted to take Olivia so she could have some fun too. Nathaniel ended up coming with me, and Jeremy took the older boys to play some ball. The play area was great, and some of the ladies from my church were there (yay no awkwardness). So they played and had a great time.

About 45min before the fireworks were due to start, I met up with Jeremy again, and he tells me he's going to help them set up. Cool, and have fun was all I really said. I took the kids back to the van and got out Olivia's stroller. My plan was to push her around to help her fall asleep, but there were way to many people out and she wasn't going to sleep. So we went to grab a spot early. We were going to watch on this big hill behind the cabins, but pushing the stroller up that big grassy hill was not easy at all, and to top it all off Olivia was not happy once we got up there. Yeah I should have waited and stayed with everyone else, but after getting up there, there was no way I was going back down, just to go up again later. So yeah for 30 min I was busy trying to console a crying screaming baby. She was very tired, very grump, and did not want to sit still. Yes all of you Moms have been there and you all know just what I'm talking about. Once the fireworks started she was fine, and she loved them, they all did! They were beautiful and I was happy. Yay mission accomplished! :)