Today we took a family trip to Port Townsend. Our first stop was the beach at Fort Worden. This was Marida's first ever trip to the beach, and she didn't really know what to make of it all...


Daddy was really excited to show Maron all the wonders of the waterfront.

Maron was really into filling the bucket that Nana & Grandpasan gave her as an early birthday present.

After the beach we went into town to have lunch at the Public House. We have always enjoyed eating there. We had a good lunch this time, although it was marred slightly by the giant piece of glass Steve found in his beer. The upside was we got the beer and a shot of tequila comped to us. :-)

Kasey's Wedding

It occured to me this morning that I should post some pictures here from Kasey's wedding weekend, for the benefit of my friends who are not on Facebook (all 3 of them). So here are a few choice pics I took in Seattle on the 15th & 16th of this month. I think I took 250+ pictures total, so bear in mind the photos here only scratch the surface of the awesome time had at Kasey's wedding.

Here are my dad, my step-mom & me at the Market Grill in the Pike Place Market. Dad & Dianna said they wanted really good clam chowder so I took them to the best clam chowder place in Seattle.

Dad & Dianna roaming through the Pike Place Market.

Me and my soon-to-be sister-in-law Lisa at the wedding rehearsal.


Me and my brother Graham at the wedding rehearsal. This photo is mainly for gatuitous purposes to show how fabulous I look after the many months I've spent dieting & exercising this year. :-)

Steve, Scott (Kasey's best man), Kasey and I at the end of Kasey's bachelor party karaoke night at a quaint little dive bar called the Marco Polo. I'm very surprised at the quality of this picture considering the chick who took it for us was crazy drunk, wearing a trashy blonde wig and lopsided disco sunglasses.




Steve and I all dressed up in our groomsmen best, about 30 minutes before Kasey's wedding. Note how fabulous my husband looks in a tuxedo (the first time he's ever worn one in his life).




Me with Dad & Aunt Kate at the wedding reception. The reception featured an open bar, so pretty much everyone was smiling in every picture throughout the night. :-)

Graham, Dad, Me, Aunt Kate, Kasey and Mom posing for a family shot. My mother actually left the dress she was intending to wear to the wedding in Spokane by accident, but she managed to find a smashing ensemble the morning of, so all was well.

Me and my new sister-in-law Lisa.

(I can think of no better way to welcome her to the family than my father and brother dancing disco throughout the night. There was a crazy amount of dancing going on, and I am in no small way pleased to report that I was the dancing antagonist for many of the older people at the reception. Just because you're not 30 anymore doesn't mean you can't dance like you are!)

But the most importance dance of all was the one that happened first - Kasey and Lisa's first dance as husband and wife.

As I have stated before, on July 23rd of last year I set a goal for myself of losing 62 lbs by September 9th of this year, which is my 30th birthday. My decision on that date what that I have been unhappy with my weight for so many years now, and really struggling with it for the last few, and I just didn't want to do it any more. So I decided that by my 30th birthday I was going to either reach my goal weight to be happy or be happy with whatever I weight I did reach. This comes from my school of thought that, at some point in your life, you have to stop trying to be happy or planning to be happy or planning to try to be happy and just BE HAPPY. There has to come a point where you stop planning for some day and start doing today.

So a year ago I decided that I didn't want to spend the rest of my life wishing I was thinner, wishing I was happy with my body. I wanted to actually BE happy with it. And that's why I set the goal date, determined to work as hard as I could between July 2010 and September 2011... so on the morning of my 30th birthday I could wake up and be truly happy with who I am, happy with where I am at in my life and (most importantly, as far as vanity is concerned) happy inside the body that I am living my life in.

I have definately had some ups and downs with the whole diet and exercise thing in the last year, but I am please to say that it has been 364 days since I set out to achieve my ultimate weight loss goal, and of the 62 lbs I set out to lose, I have lost 57 of them. I am only 5 lbs away from my goal weight now, and I still have a month and a half until my 30th birthday. As I sti here to type this I am wearing a pair of size 12 capri pants I bought at Old Navy a couple of weeks ago. For those unaware, this is my goal size. The three pairs of pants I have held onto for the last 6 1/2 years are all size 12 jeans I bought at Old Navy a decade ago. More importantly than the number on the scale, the size 12 section of Old Navy is what I have been aiming for; what I have been dreaming of since the early months of 2005 when I had to pack those jeans away and buy a bigger size up. My biggest goal has been to get back to size 12, where I was happiest and looked the best I ever have in my adult life. I have wanted to be able to walk into a store and go to the regular size clothing section, not the plus size, and know that any pair of size 12 whatever I pulled off the rack was going to fit me.

** And for the nay-sayer out there who are reading this and going, "Jeez Micah, size 12 is still pretty big... shouldn't you be setting your goals a little higher?" to you I say blow me, pal. I was a chubby kid, a chubbier adolescent and a downright fat teenager. Only people who have spend over 2/3 of their lives wearing sizes 16 and up can appreciate the glory and the joy that comes with fitting into a size 12. **

I know I am being brutally honest here. I have to, really. Because the lesson I learned the hard way is that you will never, ever be able to fix the things that are wrong with you if you can't admit them to yourself and the world. But mostly yourself. It's easy to make the "yeah, I'm pretty fat" or "I know I need to drop a few pounds" comments to friends or co-workers, but it is so goddamn hard to say it, nay CONFESS it to yourself. And this goes for all the problems in life. Weight problems, emotional problems, intimacy problems, attitude problems... until you can sit down with yourself and say "I'm fat and desperately need to lose weight" or "I'm an asshole and need to learn to be nicer to people" or whatever, until you can be completely honest with yourself you're never going to be able to fix anything about yourself that you want/need to. And for the longest time admitting to myself that I was really fat and not just retaining water was next to impossible. It took over 5 years to finally overcome the shame and embarassment I felt toward myself, and be realistic about what it was going to take to fix the problem(s).

It has been 365 days since I had the 'come to Jesus' talk with myself about my weight. It's been 364 days since I set my goals and started out on the weight loss journey. I have come a really long way, and I'm very proud of myself. But I realize that I still have a long way to go, as the last 5 lbs are always, ALWAYS the hardest. So close and yet so far away....

I recently watched the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 dvd that I bought a couple of months ago. I've been putting off watching it because I know it's harkening the end of an era. But, seeing as the 2nd (and final) installment is due out in theaters in a matter of days, I decided it was time to sit down and watch it. It, like all of the previous HP movies, was brilliant and enticing.

On Sunday I decided to once again read the final HP book, which I haven't read since it was published however many years ago. I just finished it (again) this afternoon. And I am filled once again with the same sense of loss and longing I was the first time around. And a wee bit of anger toward J.K. Rowling. I mean, did Remus and Tonks really have to die in the final battle? I get the whole dramatics of this thing... between them and Fred the shock and pain of his friends dying is what spurned Harry into the forrest to sacrifice himself, blah blah blah. But did they both have to die, literarily speaking? I mean, they just had a baby, for crying out loud. And J.K. Rowling decided that, as one of her last literary acts in the Harry Potter Universe, she was going to kill both parents of the infant who is now Harry's godson. An orphaned baby left alone in the wake of the war against Voldemort - just like Harry was the first time around. Because Harry's life was so hunky-dory after his parents' deaths, right?

And what about the epilogue? We know that Harry married Ginny and Ron married Hermione and they all lived happily ever after, but what about baby Lupin? Harry was his godfather, but he was only 17 when Remus and Tonks died. Did a 17 year old (barely of legal age) wizard take care of the newborn? All we know is that one of Harry's kids saw him snogging what I assume was Bill and Fleur's daughter on the train. There was no sense of feeling that Harry had raised Ted, he was just barely mentioned in passing. And what about Luna? What ever happened to her? Did she and Neville hook up, as we always assumed they would. The two wierd Hogwarts students falling in love and getting it on... Or did she hook up with Dean, who she endured capture and captivity and fought side-by-side in the final battle with?

What the hell J. K.? I was supposed to feel better at the end of the final book. I was supposed to feel like the bad guy was defeated and all was well in the land of Nod. But I have more questions now than I did at the start of the book. Bah!

Four days from now my oldest brother Kasey is getting married. What's that? You need me to repeat that? Kasey is getting married. Kasey is getting married. Yes, I'm talking about Kasey Kilgore. Yeesh!

Seriously though, I love my brother to bits and always have, but between you me and the fence post... aw, hell. Who am I trying to kid? Anyone who's ever met Kasey knows he's not exactly the happiest, most personable character in the book. We all know which of the seven dwarves he would be. And he likes being that way, so don't get all up in arms thinking I'm dissing my big bro days before he getss hitched. Kasey has always been the laughably bitter, cynical bastard and he's nothing if not proud of it.

Imagine my surprise/delight then, when I met Kasey's girlfriend Lisa for the first time and she was WONDERFUL! She's smart and funny and witty and chock full of hilarious stories. For every bit that Kasey is the quiet guy in the corner reading a book, she is outgoing and talkative. I love Lisa to bits and I love the person Kasey is when he's around her. Until she came into his life I had no idea Kasey could be so sweet and (gasp!) tender. It's really quite astonishing. I was SO stoked when the two of them became engaged and I am SO excited to not only attend their wedding, but to get be a part of it. I get the very distinguished honor of being one of (and the only female) groomsmen. I'm even ecxcited about the dress I'll be wearing. It's a black version of the bridesmaids dress, and it's a wonderful cut and length for my height and body type. Steve is also going to be a groomsman, and I absolutely can't wait to see him in his (outragiously overpriced) tux. In all the years I've known him I have never seen him in a formal jacket, so this is going to be sweet!

Oh, and in case you're wondering the answer is yes, I DO get to go to the bachelor party. Woot! I'm hoping we'll end up somewhere cool and that I'll get to fulfill one of my lifelong dreams of doing a body shot off of a hot chick. Natch!

So here's to you, Kasey and Lisa! I love you both and I absolutely cannot wait to see you guys tie the knot this coming Saturday. I wish you both all of the love, joy and happiness the Universe has to offer! xoxox

This year for the 4th of July I decided to take the girls dowtown to the Kingston 4th of July Parade. I haven't been to it since 2005, and the girls have never been. Aunt Georgi came over with her dog Rocky in tow, and together we set off for fun and adventure.

Here were are at a table outside an ice cream shop, where we decided to set up camp and eat lunch before the parade began.



Rocky was such a good dog the entire day. He didn't even try to eat Maron's cheese stick, which was dangling a mere, delicious foot from his head.

Marida was really tired by the time we stopped for lunch, so she wasn't very enthusiastic about the parade...

Maron on the other hand LOVED the parade! WHile Georgi sat with Marida I took Maron to the center median in the road to get a front row view. She got such a kick out of the people waving to her from the parade cars. By the time the parade was over she walked away with 2 bead necklaces and a pocket full of candy, so definately a win for her.

I'm glad Maron had such a good time watching the parade. I did too. Hopefully next year marida will be old enough to really enjoy it as well.