Riding the Seattle Heat Wave!

THIS is why we live in the Northwest.

We live and crave for the summers here because they are so gorgeous.

Okay so it might not quite be summer, but for the past two days we have enjoyed 70+ degree weather. It has been absolutely beautiful. Having the sunshine around is a definite mood booster for everyone.

With this good weather, we headed up to Camano Island with our kayaks. Grandpa brought his canoe.

Since my Mom is in Oregon with my Grandma right now (helping getting the funeral preparations done), my Dad has been at home alone. He hates being alone. He is like a lost puppy.

I think he was glad to have us visit for the day.

He brought his canoe and Preston got his first taste of life on the ocean.

He was pretty stoked, until we had to put his life jacket on him.

He has been doing this total fake cough lately whenever he wants to get our attention. When we put his life jacket on, for the entire time he was in the canoe he would do a fake choking sound. My dad kept asking if the life jacket was choking him.

"No, no, he is just pretending he's on the brink of death to get my attention." I answered.

Then either Will would wiz by in his kayak or a seagull would fly overhead and he would start going "Ohhhh, ba ba ba boosh go da da!"

And having a salty sea shell to suck on somehow made the canoe ride a bit more tolerable...

Once back on shore...

We left Preston with Grandpa while Will and I took off on the two kayaks for a while. Preston loves Grandpa! (and his seashell)

Tomorrow's forecast: Back to Rain :(

Some Changes

The Thomas household has been a war zone this past week.

Piles of huge ugly messes EVERYWHERE. Dirty dishes, crumbs all over the carpet, you couldn't even see our dining room table because there was so much stuff on it, furniture haphazordly placed.

We do have explanations though.

For one thing, our vacuum broke for a couple of days. That explains the crumbs all over the carpet. Don't worry, it's fixed now.

And the other reason is we finally decided that Preston needed his very own room, so we basically turned the house upside down re-arranging everything.

You may be wondering why a little guy like this would need his very own space.

Could it be because he is a light sleeper? Because we had our computer and music studio in his room and it was disrupting his sleeping patterns?

Yes to both. If you have been reading my Belly Diaries blog, you probably then read the occassional post regarding our many failed attempts to sleep-train Preston. (He is almost 10 months old and still does not sleep through the night). As much as we tried to not have to move the "office" out of his room (because we only have two bedrooms), we decided it was necessary in order for him to get the quiet solitude he needed.

Well we couldn't move the office/studio to our bedroom because it was already the bedroom/entertainment center room. So our only other option was to move everything out into the living room.

So this is how Preston's room used to look...

Our "office/studio" used to be on one end of the room like this:

With Preston's nursury on the other end like this:

Well, we would now like to introduce Preston's new and improved bedroom...

It is really a ginormous room for one little person, but we really had no other choice. Now Preston goes right to sleep with nobody going in there to quietly type on the computer (he would wake up to the sound of mouse clicks).

I have to admit that having the room all nursery now is very relaxing and peaceful. I love rocking him to sleep now and feeling like I'm completely in a baby's room.

So this is what we had to do with the rest of our house...

This was the way our living room used to look:

And these were the changes we made...

We moved the computer out onto the desk in the kitchen area:

We call it the "old" computer now, because after a very long time of wanting to upgrade to a beefier computer to handle my music studio programs, we finally did. I had some nice royalty payments these past few months from movie deals that licensed my music, as well as an increase in music students at the beginning of this year - so I was finally able to afford a new music computer.

This new computer will be able to handle my huge files at lightening speed and not bog down the rest of the computer. It has a quad processor, 8 gigs of memory, 650 gig hard drive, and external harddrive with 1 terabyte of space, and runs on a 64 bit operating system. It also came with a 23" inch monitor so I won't have to zoom in so much and squint my eyes while editing.

So the music studio is now completely all out in the living room. Will is still getting all of my software loaded onto it - which will take a few more days. I also upgraded to a new digital audio workstation (daws) that is a producer-level software, so I will be able to now learn how to do a lot more engineering on my music that I regularly hire others to do for me.

Another reason we got this other computer because we were finding it difficult sharing one computer these days. With Will trying to spend hours online searching for jobs, and me needing to work on my album - it was just getting increasingly difficult. We were having to schedule computer time in shifts. Usually Will had the early morning shift, and then I would get on mid-morning. And then afternoons I would teach piano while Will tended to Preston (which meant he didn't get much job searching done during that time). And then any music time I wanted was usually during the middle of the night (sooooo exhausting). AND given our sleep-issues with Preston, this also meant that we would often have to put him to sleep in our bedroom (which completely defeated the purpose of having a nursury).

Hopefully having this 2nd computer now will allow Will many more hours to look for jobs, and me being able to finish this lullaby ablum sooner as well.

Now for my weekly Mamarazzi photos.

I had a little helper in the kitchen the other day...

He mostly was just...

And then would occassionally look at me as if he were saying:

And then would do this multiple times to get my attention...

Have you seen this kid's hair from the backside before?

It is finally starting to grow in on his bald spot, but I swear he just rubs it off a day or two later. You would think with the amount of time he spends sitting and standing he wouldn't have that bald spot anymore.

And now for some great Preston faces:

The End.

In Loving Memory: Derrell Alexander Lindsay (Apr 2, 1920 - Apr 3, 2009)

My Grandfather, Derrell Alexander Lindsay, passed away peacefully this morning at 3 a.m. while in the car with my grandmother on the way to the hospital after he had an asthma attack. He just celebrated his 89th birthday yesterday.

I was very close to my Grandpa. They only have 4 grandchildren, so you could say we got him (and my grandma) to ourselves. :) I have so many memories of him growing up. He was always there.

Here is what I wrote on my Facebook page this morning:

In loving memory of my grandfather who just passed away this morning, April 3, 2009. He was a great man - someone I always looked up to and aspired to be like. He performed our wedding in the Portland LDS temple (as well as my two married brothers' weddings). He was an outdoor enthusiast. And he had the best sense of humor - always playing jokes on people, tickling, and saying the funniest things. He also had a vast vocabulary of words that I'd never heard of. Words like spizerinctum.

He served in WWII, was a dentist most of his life, had a photographic memory, and had many friends who cherished him. He loved to read, loved the Gospel, loved my Grandmother and our family. At 5'6" he was always frustrated with his height his entire life, but always was a spiritual giant to the rest of us. The church and gospel were the most important thing in his life aside from family. He dedicated many hours of voluntary service to the church as a regional representative, stake president, and bishop.

He and my grandmother backpacked the mountains of Eastern Oregon for a good 30 years. He only had one lung, bad asthma, and in recent years had a difibulator put in. He has given us many scares - he's been run over by a runaway truck, fell into a sink hole with a snowmobile on top of him, has had many heart attacks....and yet outlived most all of his 6 siblings and loved life despite all these ailments.

He died peacefully in the car on the way to the hospital after an asthma attack the day after his 89th birthday.

He is survived by his wife of 63 years ( my grandmother), Thelma Sutherland Lindsay, their daughters Carolyn Lindsay Southworth and Leslie Lindsay Arbogast, their 4 grandchildren Michael Southworth, Jennifer Southworth Thomas, Shaun Southworth, and Stephen Southworth, and 5 (and 1/2) great-grandchildren.

Rest in peace. We love you and will miss you Grandpa. Don't worry - we will take good care of Grandma. I know you held on this long just for her.

The most recent photo I have with him - this past Christmas 2008

Preston's baby blessing - Aug 2008

At our wedding, March 2005

At my younger brother, Stephen's wedding - Apr 2005

Both of my grandpa's kissing my mother on my parents wedding day (1973)

My family at General Conference - 1985?

My family at the Seattle airport picking up my grandparents after serving a 2 year mission in New Zealand. My grandpa's family came to Oregon from New Zealand in the early 1900s. They had a homestead near the Bay of Islands for 30 years after coming there from Ireland/Scotland.

Just a few of MANY outdoor adventures with Grandma and Grandpa

My dad, me, and grandparents at their home in Eastern Oregon