bring on spring

Hello again.  Long time.  No Blogging.  It feels like most of my favourite bloggers and myself are a little distracted with other things in their lives these days and blogging has taken a back seat for a while.  Has Pinterest, Instagram etc become the quicker easier social media fix these days?  Anyway, I'm here and if you're reading this, then you are too and that's great.

Here in the Pacific Northwest, Spring is teasing us.  Two days of sun. Two days of rain.  Blossom on the trees.  Wind blowing gale.  Light jackets.  Scarves.  Heating on.  Doors and windows thrown open!  Argh!   Thursday we are supposed to hit 84 degrees, but just for one day!  Let's just get on with it and bring on Spring in full force please!

Spring Break has been and gone in a flash.  We had a wonderful family trip to Arizona (in search of sunshine of course), and it did not disappoint.  Yes, yes, we all know how bad the sun is for our skin, but it felt oh so good to feel the warmth on my skin again.  The need to wear sunglasses, sun screen and light breezy clothes, and to sip Margaritas and eat tacos sitting outside in beautifully lit terraces as the sun set.  Palm trees swaying and cacti blossoming.  Heaven after the grey wet PNW these past few months.

Six days in a fun hotel with pools and lazy river and more pools, split in the middle with a three day trip to the Grand Canyon.  And WOW!  Just WOW!  What an amazing place.  It was the first visit to the GC for myself and the kiddos.  The Huzz and been 20+ years ago.  Incredible.  Vast.  Stunning and so changeable throughout the day.  We did a 40 minute flight in an eight seater plane over the South Rim and Eastside.  I did great for 20 minutes.  The next 20 minutes were mostly spent looking into a brown paper bag!  Motion sickness I hate you!  The rest of the trip was stunning.

Back home and life has taken on that count down to the end of the school year!  Did I really say that? It's hard to believe that June 17th will be here before we know it and my kids will have finished 1st and 7th Grades!  

We've finished Basketball season (2nd place, hurrah),and we are just starting Track & Field season for the teenager.  New spiked running shoes are in the house.  Personal Bests are being discussed.  He did so great in his first season last year.  Here's hoping he loves and and does just as well this year.   I know I love watching him and yes I'll be that mum bellowing from the bleachers in my best English voice, getting looks from the other parents and daggers from the boy!

Spring Cleaning has taken a hold of me!  Trying to get stuff done before the good weather arrives and I want nothing more to do inside our home.  A repaint and rearrangement of Ruby's bedroom has long been discussed and is so overdue.  Lots of decisions on artwork to be made - the Huzz has a vast collection of photographs that we'd love to get onto large canvas.  Yard landscaping will be tackled too.  And that's just to get us going.

Here's to Springtime and warmer days.

friends

Apologies for the lack of blogging.  I've pretty much had a screen free week (well ok, the occasional peek at Pinterest and Instagram!).  Instead I've been enjoying the company of a great friend visiting me from the UK.  She has been on a bit of a extended vacation - Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and then her final week with me.  We go back around 15 years, meeting via a mutual wonderful friend, and the last time we saw each other was at our friend's wedding in 2009, and yet it seemed like yesterday!

C knows me from my single girl London life pre- husband / kids / grown-up responsibilities and living overseas.  Pre-grey hair making an appearance and and more than a lines around the eyes!  It felt so good catching up, shopping, sight seeing, watching movies, drinking cocktails on Saturday evening, after an afternoon shopping (memories of London life came swimming back).

Having moved back and forth between the Netherlands and the US twice during the past 10 years, there's an element of starting again, meeting and making new friends, putting yourself out there and welcoming a new life.  I find as I've grown older that I really know the kind of person I like to become friends with, and of course that narrows your 'friend radar' more than a bit. And it takes a while to feel relaxed and really be yourself with new friends.  Spending 5 days with my friend made me feel like I was 'Me' again - it was like a mini girls vacation.  Housework got pretty much forgotten and the weekly schedule changed to accomodate day trips and evenings out.  From excitement at the Trailblazers basketball game one night, where were laughed, danced, cheered and screamed for our team, too a peaceful morning wandering around the Portland Japanese Gardens.  We watched two of my favourite movies - The American and Elizabethtown.  A day at the beach, a day in town having brunch, pedicures and shopping.  We ran the Portland Shamrock Run early on Sunday morning, and I ran a PB!  We had brunch, lunch, coffees and cocktails this past week and I enjoyed every minute of our time together.

There is nothing like spending time with an 'old' friend.  Nothing like someone who knows you well and has shared memories and laughter together.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend.