Daddy Got a New Truck...I Mean...Job...

 

Chris changed jobs!!! He has had two jobs since we got married, but the first change was in 2003 when we'd only been married a year and a half...so he put in a long 9 years and one month at Trident Water Works, which as of November 1, 2010 was owned by Consolidated Supply Company. Anyway, I don't blog about all the ins and outs of Chris' job...but this change needed to be documented. He went to work for a customer, TITAN Earth Work. The owners of the company have become good professional friends of over the years Chris has supplied them pipe. It came up in conversation at a lunch and after waiting about a month for something more official to occur, it finally did. They were excited to have him on board and hired him even though he has the least experience to offer and had the steepest salary requirements. I know it is a good fit.

It has been a month (I write this on July 26th) and he is happy. He is starting as a project manager on a year long job in Seattle...he prefers if I mention it is really Shoreline because he is really, really far north (105thish) and that is noteworthy due to the crappiness of his drive there and back. He doesn't have to be on the job every single day, they have an office for him in Sumner just ten minutes away, but he does usually go three-four times per week. He tries to avoid traffic, but often he gets caught up in something and finds himself in the car for a 4 hour round trip. The good news is his crew only works 4 ten hour shifts, so he never has to make the drive on Fridays. So...he does like what he is doing and he looks back with no regrets. It was such a blessing that this came along! He is probably going to do other things after he gets the managing part of things down. For now, he feels he has a ton to learn and they are just throwing him out there to figure it out. They are too busy to train him, so he's just getting it done. He feels slow at some things that are new to him, but it's going well. He feels he is working with the best he could hope for and has a lot to learn from the owners (who are three young guys...I think a year or two younger than we are).

The day he announced to his customers that he was changing careers, he got lots of nice feedback and invitations to lunch, job offers from several customers and a manufacturer and even some gifts. :) It was actually even funny to me that one of his customers made him up a "Certificate of Excellence" with warm fuzzies on it. HAHAHAHAHA. (I was able to upload it, so it is below.) It's hard to work for people who don't value you, but the silver lining has always been that Chris' customers do value him and they were all about throwing love his way the final two weeks. Russ and CSCO held a nice BBQ the final evening of his time there and invited all his customers...which was mostly Russ's (who told Chris he "loves" him when Chris gave him the head's up that he was probably going to quit) idea.

It was HARD for me to know that Chris was going to exit with no final spite. We would talk often about all the fun ways he could quit and all the things he could say or do to drive home the message of how crummy his experience was working for CSCO. In the end, our lawyer advised that he leave on really good terms and give no reason for them to think that he is unhappy. Ugh. Okay, okay. I am sure it was the right thing to do...but it wasn't easy. Chris now has to figure out who he is going to buy from when he has to buy pipe!! :)

Great Grandma and Grandpa Hamm's house...

The family picture gathering was also our mother's/father's day gathering. All of the kids gave a group gift of 10 prepaid dates (2 dates were prepared by my parents, one from my dad and one from my mom). We each were able to prepare dates that were in our own individual budgets and with our own interests or flair that we wanted. They will open one envelope per month and have a nice date inside. The first month was from us, and it included a prepaid walking tour of Ballard with a Cold Stone gift card. The year contains lots of variety and things they have never done before and I think it will be a great memory for them.

After family pics and lunch at my folks' house, we went to my grandparent's house for a little family service project. I stayed at my folks to give Betsey a nap, but Chris and the other men and kids went to their house to work in their big garden. This is the first year it has been hard for them to do this all on their own. I got there and took some pics of the kids playing and then we had a nice BBQ dinner together.

Van and Betsey were mostly interested in soaking themselves from head to toe in a little water feature on the patio.

Ruby, Alice and Sarah being crazy for the camera.

Dinner.

 For the sake of not driving some family historian crazy down the road 100 years...the little girl in the brown shirt is my cousin, Shannon Rassmussen's daughter. She is a cutie and was visiting her grandma and grandpa who were also at great-grandma/pa's house. She speaks Spanish and I had some fun talking with her.

Hamm Family 2012...

 

Back row: Mary, Opa, Oma, Jordan, Chris, Betsey, me, Amanda, Van, Braden

Middle row: Jeff, Nathan, Sarah, Hailey, Robb, Heather, Ruby, Alice and Mason

Front row: Molly, Jane, Carson, Adeline and Emma

We always try to do an annual family picture. Ugh. It's not ever the way I want it. I loved last year's attempt because we had ideal lighting and the setting was so pretty...but Jordan wasn't there and we had Brooks stand in for him and there was no editing it so that it looked good. Brooks and Jordan=not the same. This year, we did another pic at my folks' house and we had things planned afterward...like lunch, for starters. If a client wanted me to take a pic at noon, I'd flat out refuse or make them sign something acknowledging that the pics were going to be crappy. Well, it seems we always gather at mid-day...and on this day, it was overcast until RIGHT when we were posed and ready to shoot it. Ugh. I should have suggested we relocate, I was thinking I'd just doctor it in post, but it's not really fixable...I should have relocated. I love what we were all wearing, I think everyone looks so purdy and we are in a good place with no pregnancies, no newborns...everyone photographed really well...not even any criers! Anyway, so this is what we ended up with. Not canvas worthy, but we'll try again next summer!

Braden, Amanda and the boys...Mason and Van.

Adeline.  

Jeff, Mary and fam...Sarah, Nathan, Sarah and Molly.

Robb and Heather and their cuties, Hailey, Emma, Carson and Adeline. 

Ruby is a beauty. She's so willing to have her pics taken, I love that about her! She comes up with fun poses and lots of difference expressions. We need to go on a photo shoot just us and my camera.

 

Art Show

A few of my friends and I started a co-op 2 years ago. The first year was a house rotation for just our kindergarteners. This year we held classes for 0-10 years and recruited a few more families along the way. We finished up the year with a really nice art show where the kids exhibited some of their best work from the year long Atelier art class that Angela Owen taught. We invited friends and family and had a nice brunch followed by more art viewing and awards. We were happy that Oma and Emily Lingbloom (currently living with us for the summer) were able to join us and show their support!

Here is Alice with her two pieces.

Here is Ruby and Betsey stanging by her best work from the year. Love! 

 

Mmmmm. Brunch.

 

Some of the great artwork on display.

 

Anne Eugenio is our South Sound Homeschoolers president and she gave Alice the "Up For Anything" award. She really is good at going with the flow, I am so glad she's mine!

 

Ruby got the "Leadership Award" because she is always the ring leader at co-op. She is friends with everyone and does such a good job organizing games and group fun. I love that about her, she reminds me so much of me in the way she interacts with others.

 

The whole gang...from left to right: Ruby, Eve, Mikaili, Ava, Olivia, Ella, Stella, Eli, Savanna, Thomas, Suzette, Noah, Amarya, Liam, Alice, Liam, Shayla, Isaac, Ammon. We are missing Mattie Guthrie from the picture because she had another commitment. 

 

I love having a community to honmeschool with!! I love my friends who homeschool with me, they are strong, passionate and powerful women who inspire me! I was with the unpictured nursery aged children this year, but I still love all these kids...I got to know most of them outside of co-op or from substituting and going on fieldtrips. They are a great group of students and friends to each other.

Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium

After the art show, we went with Oma to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. We hadn't been in so long, Alice doesn't even remember ever going. Kinda sad...but I don't love the zoo...and especially alone with the kids. We had good weather and enjoyed seeing the various animals. The coolest thing was some little leopard cubs that were so small and cute and they were being exercised in this larger area and we got to go see them play and jump and balance. It was so cute...they will be really big and probably hiding the next time we go! I didn't get any pics of the cubs...they were enclosed in an area with several layers of really tight mesh, so it was hard to see, let alone take a picture through.

Betsey is at such a fun, animal loving stage for the zoo. She loved the aquarium parts.

 

Alice, Oma, Ruby and Bets inside one of the fish tanks.

They have added a touch and feel area at the aquarium which was so fun. I was surprised how wiling Betsey was to touch stuff...she isn't often like that.

We went to a little show at the main stage. It was cheesy, but the animals were entertaining.

Alaska Cruise...

I got to get away with my man for our ten year anniversary (and my birthday, as long as the anniversary was six months ago and we left on the trip two days after my birthday). We went to Alaska, the Inner Passage, our ports were Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway. When Chris presented this idea I was not that enthusiastic because after all, we already living in cold, rainy and green all year and in May of all months, I want an escape to somewhere tropical! I knew we would love getting away together and the trip was planned with some good friends Aaron and Lori Stafford which was great...I just wasn't sure I wanted to visit Alaska over Mexico or Costa Rica or somewhere...outside the cold and rainy part of the world.

WE HAD A GREAT TIME and we HAD GREAT, SUNNY weather!

Here we are on formal night one of the nights on the boat. I get the tradition of formality on a cruise, but preferred on the Carnival cruise never having to do the formal thing. Many people did do it, but we didn't and we were still allowed to eat. This was a more formal feel for sure and it was maybe a little bit fun, but a lot of hassle. From left to right: chris, me, Lori Stafford, Aaron Stafford, Rebeckah and Mike Schneider.

I loved Ketchikan. It was our first port and we went ziplining there. It was such a good experience, but no pics to really show for the ziplining part...

Chris did some rock climbing after our zipping experience. The ziplinging was impressive. We probably went on like 8-12 different zips and we went really fast on some, over the water on one, and just all through this beautiful, forrested lot.

 Chris and I found "our place on the boat. It was looking over the indoor pool area (the pools on this boat were soooooo big and warm and there were MANY of them...so much more what you envision than our Carnival boat. Anyway, we would sit on these chaise lounge chairs for hours relaxing. Chris would read Dave Barry and I was knitting for a special little baby boy. I also slept and watched the scenery and made friends with a few nice people. It was so nice relaxing!!! 

 

Chris didn't want his picture taken...but I got him!  

 

Here we are in Juneau, our second port. We arrived and there was a lot of low fog and we were thinking it would probably rain, but we didn't have any rain on our whale watching tour or at the Mendenhal Glacier...it started to sprinkle as we were leaving the glacier en route to the boat. We saw lots of whales, it was fun and you always wish you could get a little closer. 

 

 

 

The Mendenhal Glacier was beautiful and quiet and just something I'd never seen in person before.  

Between Juneau and Skagway we had a lot of amazing scenery as we cruised through the Tracy Arm Fjord, a narrow interior passageway. I didn't take any pictures, but we sat by the windows in the dining room for quite awhile watching the waterfalls and chunks of glacier ice and eagles and seals swimming by. These were taken with Chris' iphone through the window. :)
Skagway was our final destination. We had gorgeous, sunny, short sleeved weather and the place was just breathtaking. During the cruise I kept thinking about how familiar much of the beauty was being from the northwest. Of course we don't have all that uninhabited space or the mountains that are on top of you covered in snow or the ice floating around...there was lots for our eyes to appreciate...but imagine an Alaska cruise if you were from Arizona or something. Every green tree would be a shock to your system. We floated the Taiya river while we were there, it was sunny and warm and relaxing and beautiful. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a great sunset the evening we pulled out of Skagway.  

We had another day at sea full of relaxing and an outdoor movie and I slept in until after noon that day (we didn't have a window in our room...I don't know how it is possible that I slept that much, but I did).  

Our last port was Victoria, BC. We got off the boat and it was sunny and warm, but cooling off...we didn't get to the port until 7pm. We took a nice bus tour of Victoria and then I was freezing and craving a hot tub and so Chris and I went back to the boat. Victoria is a lovely city, we had taken the same bus tour a year ago, but enjoyed being on the bus and seeing it all again.  

Chris let me put a bright big kiss on his neck. I guess the humiliation was worth getting the extra attention from me? I don't know, but he was sporting that kiss all night.  

 

We were ready to come home by the end of the trip. We had thoroughly gotten away from "it all" and we still haven't quite come down from it. I still feel rejuvenated and more patient and appreciative of my daily role as a SAHM. As we were walking back to the ship in Victoria, I told Chris that even though we probably should not have gone on such a nice vacation and we really might not be able to afford to do it again for another five years...it's just so worth it, we need to do it even if we are broke for a few months leading up to it and a few months after. It's just kind of essential.

We are so indebted to my parents for having the kids the entire time. They were so well taken care of and although they were thrilled to see us (especially Betsey who kept saying "mommy on boat?" "daddy all gone?" while we were away), there were tears and pleadings not to take them home once it was time to leave Oma and Opa's house. That says it all...THANK YOU!!