little ones

I am not a fan of the nights when you are physically exhausted, but your brain just keeps on going and won't shut down. I have a million things going through my head. A huge to do list and lots of heavy thinking...that is the part that is keeping me awake, I'm sure.

It's been far too long since I've talked about Olivia. She was the reason I started this blog...

A few weeks ago, I took photos of my great nephew, he is so cute and adorable and perfect. The same day, I took photos of another little baby, a boy, who was tiny and adorable and perfect, but it wasn't a happy day for these parents. He had passed away. It was an interesting day for me, to go from one extreme to the other, to see such joy in one family and sorrow in another.

I don't share my story with families at the hospital unless I am asked questions about how I am able to photograph their little ones. This particular family, that few weeks ago, was quiet and reserved, showing little emotion, like they had things under control. I quietly went about my photographing, keeping my words to a minimum so they could keep the quiet peace in their room. I always point out the sweet little features, usually finding that the baby has so and so's nose, or so and so's hair color. I think it helps them to know that I look past the imperfections and see a beautiful human being, their child. I usually end the photo shoot with the parents holding their baby so that when I leave the parents get to have a moment with their sweet little one. As I left the room, the mother started to cry. By the time I was in the hallway, I could hear her sobs. I was thanked by the hospital staff and was told that it was the first time she had cried since she had got to the hospital. I'm not sure what it was I said or did. A few days later, I got a card in the mail.

"Thank you for coming to take pictures of ____ and his family. His parents left this card of recognition for you and they and the staff were so appreciative of all you did.

I can't imagine doing this job without your services. Thanks not only for your amazing photography talent, but for your sensitivity and respect you offer. Thank you!"

Inside the card was a note from the family on a recognition postcard:

"For Arah Kunz.

Deserves recognition for: treating my son with the utmost respect while taking photos. Being respectful of family and boundaries."

This was the first note I have ever received from a family. It made me feel so good that, because of my little Olivia, I can help another family have memories and maybe give them hope that things will be okay, maybe not tomorrow, but eventually.

Earlier this week, I was at the hospital photographing another sweet little baby. This family was more talkative, asked me lots of questions about how long I had been taking photographs for Forget Me Not(I can't believe it's been two years) and how I got started. Sometimes I get a "I'm so sorry for your loss" and I feel bad, like I'm taking a moment away from their child. After I was finished, I left my information with the family, then quietly left. The next day I got an email from one of the family members.

"Hello Arah,

I want to express my thanks for your kindness and caring way that you respected ____ yesterday. Your compassion and tenderness helped to lessen the pain that we were all feeling so deeply..."

It amazes me what my daughter has done for so many families. I know her spirit is right there with me when I am with these little ones . It's my one-on-one time with Olivia that I can't really have anywhere else.

bathroom update

Yay! Our bathroom is almost done!

The tile floor is done... the vanity is in ...
the toilet flushes...

just a few little things left to finish, like the shower head, a toilet paper holder and towel bar, a mirror...oh so close.

It's exciting! Eventually there will be ashower door, but for now a curtain will have to do.

In other projects...

I took the disgusting carpet off the stairs...

pretty huh?

There is some real, real nice linoleum on the stairs. Whoever put the carpet in failed to prep the stairs and I am having to remove the metal edge pieces off of every stair. And the dirt? ugh. It's gross.

Can't believe how close we are to having a basement. As long as we don't have any other set backs, the carpet should be installed next week.

The window in my kitchen is being installed as I type. Can't wait to have a window I can see through and can clean from the outside.

SO EXCITED!

...

Saturday morning we went to a dear Kunz family friend, Gerald Lowe's, funeral. He is the Father-in-law of Matt's sister, Lori. Such a sweet, loving man. He was buried just a few feet from our little Olivia. Matt's parents haven't been out to the cemetery since Olivia's funeral, so Saturday, they were able to see her headstone in person. Thank goodness for iphone's. We wouldn't have this picture otherwise.

We brought apples (we don't bring flowers often) for the deer. We brought one for Gerald too.
It was really nice to have family with us. Usually it's just me and the girls, or just me or Matt and I. So I really, really appreciated the Lowe family and Matt's sister, Ami, and his parents to just spend a few minutes with her, even while there for the graveside service for Gerald.
Thank you!

celebrate

Last week, my Grandfather would have been 100 years old.

(my Grandpa, a HUGE A's fan, holding tickets to the '89 World Series, I believe. Always has a game on the TV...or Lawrence Welk)

Many of my Dad's siblings celebrated his birthday by going to my Grandparent's favorite Chinese restaraunt and bowling (my Grandfather was quite the bowler). We could not join them, as we are in Washington and the celebrating was done in California.

My Dad had to work the day of my Grandpa Brownie's birthday. He sent out an email to his children reminding us to remember him. Since we couldn't have a little party on his birthday, this last Saturday, we got together to go bowling.

We are not nearly as good as my Grandpa...okay, not even close. Most of us didn't score over 100.
My Dad had the best score of 149.

He reminds me of my Grandfather, quiet and hardworking.

Cody asked his mom to make a mohawk. Cody cracks me up. Such a funny little man.

After bowling, we all went to my parents for some of my Dad's chocolate cake and the best frosting ever. We sang Happy Birthday and Brinley and Cody blew out the candles.

To be honest, I didn't know my Grandpa all that well. We didn't grow up around them and moved closer to them when I was in high school. I do remember the vacations we took to go see them. We would always get there late at night and slept on their concrete kitchen floor in sleeping bags (NO WAY I could do that now).

They always had these pastries in their fridge that they would heat up and put butter on (like they weren't fattening enough). They sell these pastries at Costco and everytime I walk by them, the thought of my Grandparent's pop into my head.

My Grandpa always had a stash of mini 3 musketeers. Every afternoon, he would have one. If we were at his house, he would always share with us.

He would pull out his harmonica and play for us, it never seemed to be planned, just whenever he felt like it.

I think every one of my cousins remember his wet sloppy kisses. We still joke about these, and once in a while, we give one to my Dad.

My grandpa always had a nice garden and a huge cherry tree (my brother loved shooting birds out of that tree). He always took good care of his yard, I'm guessing that's where my Dad got his green thumb.

Happy 100th Birthday Grandpa!

We love and miss you!

And because I don't get pics of my little family all together that much (what a bad mom), here is one of my girls and my sweet hardworking husband, whom I hardly ever get to see much of.

before and in-the-middle-of...

renovations. Our basement is a mess, but not for long, thanks to Matt's awesome Uncle and his brother, Chris, with his plumbing expertise. So here are a few pics...okay, a lot of pics, of some before's and during's:

The Hallway before Now: with a closet...YAY for storage!
***
Before: the BEAST...that would be that despicable mess of a fuse box on the wall, and the ugly utility stuff. That white pipe, that's the outdoor sprinkler system that went THROUGH our basement ceiling.

Now: the sprinkler pipes have been removed and we have all of our electric updated. oh yeah, and a wall to hide the ugly utilities. It's not a full wall. I didn't want to deal with trying to figure out how to put a door in this awkward spot and the pipes stand out from the wall at least a foot. ***

Before: our old place to store all the crap we collected and where we hung some of our laundry.

Now: the second bathroom now resides...and it has been a pain in the behind all around with ducting that hangs low and some plumbing issues needing to be addressed. But it's coming together thanks to the pro's who know what they are doing.

And our dryer died during all of this too. Luckily, we have connections and it was replaced the next day. Our furnace had decided to take the past two weekends off and we had all been sleeping in one room with a space heater. I guess with all the dust from construction, the heat sensor had enough. Again, family came to the rescue to fix it...Thanks Chris!

***

Before: the storage under the stairs.

Now: the bathroom wall. We opened up the wall on the other side of the stairs in the new storage room. It was really, really nice not to have to move all of those boxes. The dark concrete on the floor is where the new plumbing was connected for the toilet. We REALLY, REALLY need a second bathroom.

***

Before: The family room and storage room. Now: with the walls up and painted and doors. That's Jeff over in the corner, he's our painter friend who does a really, really good job.

and this is the room after the paint (we chose the color STONE by Ralph Lauren and it's a really awesome, calming color. LOVE IT!) We cut an opening from the hallway into this room because the hallway is so narrow. We wanted to open up the space and couldn't widen the entrance to this room. It really like how it turned out.Here is the before of the other end of this huge room.

And how it looked before being painted. The window on the end, we will eventually egress.

We can't wait to use this space. It will be like adding almost double what we have upstairs, which isn't big, so it will be nice to have another place for the kids to play and not drive me nuts. Brinley had been hoarding all the carpet samples we bring home. She thinks they feel nice on her feet and isn't fond of the wood floors we have.

By the end of next week, we hope to start putting windows and doors in...it's all so exciting.

love rocks!

I have always loved homemade valentines. Brinley loves them too. I have found some really creative and fun valentines on the web. I borrowed some of the ideas I found and changed them up a bit to fit what I wanted to do. We took advantage of our chalkboard wall and made some really fun valentines. The best part of these is that they are super easy and cheap. Had them printed in 1 hour. Brinley had seen some decoration at school that said 'love rocks' and wanted her bubble to say just that.

Can I just tell you how much fun our chalk board wall has been. We love it! Brinley practices her spelling words on it...makes homework a lot more interesting.The hardest part was cutting out the holes to thread the bag through. If I hadn't alread had the bags done, I would have used something to twist close.

Brinley loved them and is excited to give them out at school today. We don't have school tomorrow or Monday, so the whole school gets to celebrate Valentine's Day by going roller skating all day and then have class parties in the afternoon when they get back.

career concert

Last week Brinley had a career concert at school. For a few weeks before the concert, they had parents come in and tell the kids what they do and why its important to go to school and learn math and reading, etc. I signed Matt up to come and talk about cell phones and being able to take them apart to fix them. They gave him the title of "phone man". He gave them all some little CricKet flask light. Brinley has come home with books, toothbrushes, chocolate ears, candy, stickers, a few Zumba moves (she goes to school with the Y's Zumba instructors daughter), pencils, etc.

THEY LOVED IT!

All of the children were asked to wear a costume to school dressed as what they want to be when they grow up. There were police men, soldiers, bakers and cooks, teachers, basketball players and even a Willy Wonka. Brinley has always, always wanted to be...

an ice cream store worker.

I kinda nudged her to maybe want to own her own ice cream shop someday. She came up with the name and picked the colors of the stripes. I made her costume out of butcher paper, markers and a bit of felt...easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
She loved it.

The night of the concert, all the kids in her class dressed up in their costumes. During one of the songs, they walked the "runway" so they could show everyone their someday careers. It was adorable. They all did such a good job.

Last Friday, they had got to stand up in front of the class, dressed in their costumes and tell about what they do. Brinley had made up ice cream flavors that were going to be in her shop 'strawnana' (strawberry banana) and 'huckleberry lava' (not sure what exactly would be in it other than huckleberries, but she liked the name).

I love her class and her teacker. So, so glad I put her in the SPICE Program.

basement

Our basement is starting to look like a lot like a room and not a basement anymore.

It's exciting.

I will finally have a storage room and we will all appreciate the second bathroom. We've had a few issues with the electrical, as in placing the sprinkler system (which goes THROUGH our house) directly in front of our old school fuse boxes and puting a light in the air intake...idiots. Those things will be fixed and we will be upgrading our fuse boxes. We are pulling out our sprinkler system entirely for now and when we get the yard finished, replace it.
It's so much farther along than this now. But I haven't taken a picture of it in the last two days.
Our windows came in today...YAY! They screwed up and ordered the wrong tint, so they don't qualify for the rebates. However, they we're awesome enough to pay us back what we would have gotten from Avista. We already got an awesome deal on them, so now we got an even awesomer deal on them. We will start replacing those next week.
We picked out carpet , door and paint yesterday.
Can't wait to see it all done.

hi. my name is Arah and I have an addiction...

I LOVE Zumba.

If you haven't tried it, you must. It is so. much. fun! I have been going twice a week for the past 6 months and in the past few weeks, I've bumped it up to 4 times a week, with swimming, weights and cardio on the other days, except Sunday. Sunday I take a break. It's given me tons of energy and I really miss it when I can't go. The classes have been as large as 75-80 people. It's awesome. There is even a 91 year old in the class.

My only problem is that I sweat horribly. It's disgusting. My friend I go with is also a sweat-er. Her birthday was on Sunday, so I made her a little gift. I've decided that there aren't any cute sweat bands out there, so I made my own. Way cuter. We used them last night, they were awesome! I did a little tweaking to make them better and waalaa...

I took a bunch into the class this morning.

They were a hit. I made them in different colors. They collect the sweat. They don't slide. YAY!!! And used a nice plush terry cloth for the inside. I'm making more. LOTS MORE!

People are buying them from me.

Who would have thought there was a market for sweat bands...

i {heart} seattle

Last weekend, my sister, Julie, and I took the kids over to Seattle to do some tourist-y stuff and see my bro and his girls. My SIL had won some tickets to the BODIES Exhibition and asked if we wanted to go... AMAZING!!!

Sorry if you have a weak stomach, I had to add some pictures. (click on the pics for the links)

Brinley hated it. In fact, I didn't get to enjoy it as much as I would have liked. She and I hung out in the souvenir area until everyone else was done,then they hung out with her while I did a hurried run through of the place. AMAZING is all I can say. If you get an opportunity to go, check it out.

Friday we had to do some business stuff and then took the kids to the LEGO store. they loved it! It was a great treat for them since we spent about 2 hours in the van driving around in circles in the U district waiting for a parking space to open up close to where I dropped Julie off.

We were pretty pooped out that afternoon. We enjoyed dinner at a 50's diner in Redmond. Great place for kids to run around and get some energy out.

Saturday we decided to take the kids to the top of the Space Needle. I've been to the Space Needle a dozen times, but never have I been to the top until last weekend.

The kids were pretty excited about it. Brinley's favorite part was the elevator ride up.'Hello Seattle!'Brinley decided that when she grows up, she wants to work there. I'm sure she will change her mind next week.

We came home Sunday and spent Monday being lazy up until Zumba that night, then I took the girls swimming for some family time and to wear them down.