baby sitting :)

So, last night and tonight Kara and Coltin asked me to babysit while they go show a plan for their business. The kids are super easy to watch, so I don't mind at all doing it. Last night, I couldn't get Jada (the youngest at 6 months old) to go to sleep. So she ended up just sitting up in my lap while I watched Downton Abbey on Netflix. She finally fell asleep just before 11pm and then Kara and Coltin got home at 11:30. She was out, so at least she didn't wake up. Today, since I knew I would be watching the kids again, I knew that I needed to get out of the house and away from everyone for a while. Luckily, Joe (kara's brother) was thinking exactly the same thing and called me to see if I wanted to go out and get coffee and hang out. Thank goodness! So I picked him up and hung out with Coco for 20 minutes while Joe primped and made himself beautiful :) We went to get coffee and he started talking about everything that is going on in his life (or rather not going on, since like me, Joe is currently unemployed), and his relationship. I love Joe like a little brother, so I feel that everything in his life is not perfect. I just want him to be happy so bad! Anyway, we ended up going to the mall nearby and just walking around browsing a whole bunch of stores and talking about everything for several hours. It was nice, but neither of us wanted to go back home by the time we were done walking around the mall, so I suggested that we go to this dive-looking bar just down the street from Kara's house. It was pretty sweet. Bigger than it looks from the outside, and all of the cushions on the stools are all ripped. The locals were obviously regulars, but they were very friendly as they each gave me their particular opinions on the local brews. :) When we finished our drinks, we came back to Kara's and and I ended up in a tickling match with Mira and Alyssa while Caiden and I also wrestled. He'll be dangerous when he gets bigger, but for now, he is still light enough that at the very least, I can just pick him up and toss him away from me onto the couch to get away. As Kara and Coltin and their friends were leaving to go to their plan, I surrendered myself to Mira for a make-over. I got more and more scared as she started taking even the lip gloss and spreading it around my face. But she was working so hard and was really trying to make it look nice. As she worked, Alyssa did her own makeup and then it was my turn to do Mira's makeup. As I was doing hers, Vincent decided that he really wanted in on the fun! Now, normally I would not have encouraged him, because I know that Coltin really does not like it when his boys show any interest in anything "girly", because he doesn't want them to think it's okay, because I think he is terrified of them becoming gay. (There are several gay people in both Kara and Coltin's families, so I think it is something that he constantly worries about.) Anyway, I wanted to share the pics with you, since they are simply crazy!

Sunday

After a late night of babysitting for Coco's little girl last night, Joe and Adam and I stayed up late watching a few movies :) I was still able to wake myself up early sunday morning and make it to a Spin class at the gym and shower and get home in time to go to church with Kara, Coltin and all of the kids. My initial plan had been to go back home and take a nap while everyone was out of the house; but that's not how things go around here :) So after we got back, Kara's friends who rent the lower level of their house, decided to make lasagna for everyone, so Kara and I decided to take the time and do our nails. I really like how mine look, I think they are pretty awesome! After that, I snuck off to my room and watched a movie, and by the time it was over, it was dark in the house and everyone had sort of disappeared without me even realizing it. But within about an hour, more people turned up (of course). We made popcorn and some of us drank some wine (yes, i was a part of that!), and then as they were all settling in to play some card games, I holed up in my room again, for some Netflixing. It's not that i didn't want to be social, it was just that the people who are here, are all family and close friends of Kara and Coltin's friends Justin and Kody (the couple who live in the lower level). I felt like they were all over to hang out with each other and catch up, and me being there would be odd. Tomorrow is monday, and several of the kids are back to school (after them having all of last week off), so it will be pretty quiet around here. :)

illness, and boredom

So, a few days ago, Kara's oldest kid, Coltin, had a cough and watery eyes. Alright, no biggie, right? NOT RIGHT! Now 2 of the other kids have a cough, headache, bloody noses, and seriously watery eyes! What the heck is this??? I'm washing my hands every 20 minutes and loading up on echinacea. Whatever it is, they look terrible and I do NOT want it! Other than that, things are going pretty good :) I'm not terribly homesick. Of course I miss my friends and my family a lot. But I'm doing alright. I keep sending out my resume to these large science companies, but haven't heard anything back from them yet. Tara, you had excellent advise, and I promise I will follow-up with those companies tomorrow! For whatever reason, I find it very easy to put off calling them and asking if they have received my resume, and letting them know that I'm very interested in working for them (seriously, working at any of these companies would be awesome!) I know that I need to do it, but it is hard to find some time to make any personal phone calls without the kids making tons of noise in the background, especiall since all of the kids have this whole week off of school. And then when I do find some extra time, I want to call friends or family to chat or catch up, not make business calls. Ugh, I promise myself and all of you that I WILL do it tomorrow. It is really hard to think about being in a different time zone, too. The worst is that in order to use free evening minutes, I need to wait for 9pm, but that's 11pm at home, and midnight if I want to talk to Mary in florida! I will have to make sure that I keep track of the minutes being used so that we don't go over. I'm still exercising at least once a day, and twice a day several days a week. But as usual, my body doesn't have any interest in losing weight! It's so stupid. I did a genetic test of my body thru my Amway business a year or two ago, and one of the things it said is that in order for my body to lose weight, I need to be doing multiple sessions of high-intensity exercise a week. One of Kara's friends out here has been doing Insanity. I'm thinking that I should start inviting myself to workout with her. Maybe that would help. Besides that, I've become familiar with the neighborhood I'm living in, so I no longer need to use my GPS to find things :-) And I've been working on including myself with Kara and Coltin and the people that they hang out with, so that I am more comfortable hanging out with them. It's not the same as making my own friends, but at least it's something. I really need to start talking to people so that I can meet people. But as I'm sure all of you know; It's really hard to make friends as an adult! I've been thinking of trying to find some sort of group on craigslist to join, but am a little leary of that. If any of you have any suggestions as far as meeting people, or finding a group to hang out with, let me know. Oh, and lastly, Washington drivers are pretty darn polite and laid back :) Mary, if you read this, you GOTTA come out here sometime just to compare drivers in WA and FL! They all follow the speed limit, and totally let you merge in front of them if you put your blinker on. It is so funny. Alright, so, hopefully I'll get something a lot more interesting to write soon, but if any of you are on skype, go ahead and find me (see below) and we can video chat. Also, if any of you are interested in checking out any of the products I sell on my website, I am running a 10% off promotion of any nutrilite or XS products for the rest of the month! Text or call or email or facebook me if you have any questions. My favorite are the meal replacement shakes and bars, and the concentrated fruits and vegetable pills (they also have those in the liquid form that you squirt into your water, but I already do that with the joint replacement thingys, so i just take the pills) Hope you are all well! Love, Katie Skype: klhen12 My Store: www.amway.com/katiehenrikson

Staying busy and getting lost

So, I know all of you will understand this, but it sounds weird. I have been staying sooo busy, but haven't really been doing anything! It's just that will all of the commotion that goes on here at Coltin and Kara's house all day, every day, I feel like most of the time i'm very busy. Everyone here exercises pretty much daily, and i have invited myself to tag along with them all of the time :) So Kara and her friends Kody and Kelsey do a dancing video at home with Shawn T, and Coco, Devon (coco's boyfriend) and Coltin go to LA Fitness, so I've been exercising pretty much twice a day. I really like this, and even tho I really want to find a job, I will be sad to have to cut back on the exercising, it's been fun! Last night, Coco and I helped Coltin, Caiden, and Mira write all of their valentines to their classmates. It was sooo fun, and brought up some funny memories that we shared :) Anyway, today was Valentines Day. Obviously, I didn't really have any plans, so when Kara's sister, Coco, called and asked if I would go with her to the mall, I was all over it. We just stopped in at a couple of stores and she bought a few things, and then i was going to bring her home. I have learned the way between her house and Kara's by now, but Kara had called and asked me to stop at the liquor store to pick something up. Well, when i was leaving the parking lot, somehow i got all turned around and went 4 miles down the wrong road, in the wrong direction before i realized it!!! And the roads are set up so skrewy in Renton, that there is no direct route to anything! In order to get anywhere, you have to go pretty much in a huge circle and take lots of turns. It's messed up, but eventually, I made it home :)

formula

ok, babies are sooo cute, and when they are clean they are adorable and smell great! But formula smells gross, and soy formula smells even more disgusting than the regular stuff!!! And then you have spit up, bleh!!! How did i get on this topic? Tonight, Kara is away doing an Artistry party and won't be back until midnight, and Coltin is off at work for the overnight shift. Kara's sister, Coco, came over to help me watch the kids, and we watched a movie, sent all of the kids to bed, but baby Jada was not having any part of it! She had two bottles, and stayed up with us until quater to 11pm, drooling and spitting up all over me. In between crying fits, she would just look at us with this intense, big-eyed gaze and laugh at us with her adorable dimple-cheeked face! She's so sweet :)

ahhh, sundays (pt 6)

Here is a pic of mom standing in front of the Pretty Parlor - her cousin, Ann's, boutique. It was a way better little store than i even thought. She takes old clothes that are already kinda cute or interesting, and redesigns them so that they are super cute! There were several things in there that i would have loved to walk out with :) She also allows a couple of local groups to sell their art-clothing there.

ahhh, sundays!! (pt 5)

When we went on the boat tour of Union Lake and the Puget sound, we saw the famous floating house on Union Lake that was used for many of the scenes in Sleepless in Seattle (which i think i will definitely need to watch again sometime).

I was also able to snap this picture of the Seattle skyline with the Space Needle and Pier 70 (i was gonna get Pier 69 in the pic, but it wasn't labeled and was just an ugly little pier)

ahhh, sundays!! (pt4)

This is the Infamous "Gum Wall" located next to the Pikes Place Market. I don't understand it, but they leave it alone and don't clean it up.

ahhh, sundays! (pt 3)

Here is the view from the top of the Space Needle. We are looking inland, and in the distance you can just make out Mt Ranier, which is a good 70 miles away i think! It was a beautiful, sunny day. So you can imaging that being able to see that mountain is still pretty cool!

Here is Pikes Place! It was pretty fun to watch. They shout out the best catches of the day, hollar and toss fish and other sea creatures around. They also had some free samples available and were extremely friendly and fun.

ahhh, sundays!!! (pt2)

I think this was Snoqualmie Pass. The 2nd biggest/steepest, but definitely the most curvy.

ahhh, sundays! (pt1)

What a nice calm day!

This was MN sending me off in style! It was such beautiful scenery!

Here's how packed my car was! We actually had a few inches of space inside, but i had everything i needed :)

We made it!!!

Wow, i can't believe it's been 6 days since i last updated on here! Everything has been so busy and crazy, that i just haven't had any time to get on the internet for anything other than just a quick post on facebook. So, to update.... My mom and i finally made it out to my friend's house in Renton (a suburb of Seattle) on Tues afternoon. We stopped for a third night at another Super 8 on monday night. I wasn't really tired and could have pushed straight thru, but we would have gotten there at 3am and i just didn't want that to be my reception. :) Anyway, we got there and it was just Coltin, Kara, Coltin II, Alyssa, and Jada at home (i know, just 5 of them right? LOL). So we unpacked my car right away and since it was 58 degrees and sunny and just gorgeous, my mom and i decided that we would head out to downtown Seattle and go up to the top of the Space Needle. It was beautiful up there! So sunny and such a great view, but it was very windy. Did you know that the observation deck does not rotate? Only the level that the restaurant is on rotates, and that is just below the observation deck. After we did that, we went down to the street along the waterfront and looked at some of the shops and had dinner at a restaurant. We sampled some local beer and had this FANTASTIC appetizer. Then we found our way to the REI flagship store and checked that out; I had heard so many people tell me that the flagship store was so awesome! Finally we went back to Kara and Coltin's house and saw the rest of the family :) We hung out for a while and then went to sleep. :) Surprisingly, my mom and i both found it very easy to sleep late here (even with babies crying and 5 other kids running around or getting ready for school). But we did eventually get up and get out on Wed. We decided to go out and check out Pikes Place Fish Market. It was super fun! If parking wasn't so expensive, and if the driving in Seattle wasn't so terrible, I'd go down there to hang out every day! We also went to the International District and China Town. It wasn't anything special, but i ordered us some chinese food to take home. Thursday was a really great day. Mom slept in until almost 11am and then we went on a boat cruise to tour Union Lake, and thru the locks and dam, and then down Puget Sound to the Harbor in downtown Seattle. It was 2.5 hrs and was narrated by this nice girl who moved to Seattle from the east coast last year in February. A lot of the tour was about the history of Seattle, or the buildings/neighborhoods that we passed by as the tour went along. It was very interesting. After that, we made our way up to Capitol Hill and found the shop that my mom's cousin Annie owns. We walked in the store and right away saw my great-aunt Barb. She was so excited to see that we showed up! It was great to see her again. She was always so nice and interesting to talk to the few times i've met her. I was introduced to Annie and we spent the next 2 hours catching up and chatting about the store and all of Annie's beautiful clothing and the artistic alterations she makes. It was so nice. And Barb gave me her phone number and Annie told me to stop in or call anytime that I needed advise. It was a great idea to meet up. Mom and I spent all day on friday shopping and organizing my things in my new room. And then all of us went out for dinner and when we got home, Kara, Coltin, Mom and I stayed up late talking and drinking yummy Arbor Mist! I had to bring my mom to the airport early saturday morning. It was really hard to have her leave. But she told me to be strong and have fun :) While she was here, it was like a vacation. I'm really glad she was able to stay for a few days. I'm not sure that i would have had the confidence or even desire to go out and see so much of the touristy things that we did. I am still really nervous about this whole thing (sometimes it's most prevalent when the baby is crying and all the other kids are talking loudly over each other trying to get my attention and Kara and Coltin are both busy with something else... I just feel like i'm swimming in chaos). I think i will have to start retreating to my bedroom area once in a while to stay sane :) I think i could adapt, and i think i could kind of like living here with everyone- as long as i have a job and am not maybe around ALL day :) Love you Kara!!!! and i love your kids too :) and i know you will understand exactly what i mean. It's late, and i'm pretty tired, so i'm gonna go to bed, but i will upload some pics in the morning.

The Drive Out West

Well, the drive hasn't been going great :( We were forced to stop after only 400 miles in Bismark, ND due to some very dense fog. It was 8:30pm, and we just weren't comfortable driving without being able to see the lines on the road. So we started driving around to all of the hotels in Billings and asking for rooms. To our surprise and consternation, the first 3 we stopped at were completely full!!! I was nervous to stop in at the Super 8, cuz T thought it would be dirty and gross, but they had rooms, with a free breakfast, and it was cheap. We were also pleasantly surprised at how clean it was. Sunday morning, we woke up at 7, ate breakfast and were out in the car by 8am. Right away we noticed that a light was on in the dashboard. I looked it up in my car manual, and it was the Emmisions Warning light. I called my brother-in-law to ask what that was about and he let me know that the car was most likely still driveable, just to be aware of how it's driving and if it's overheating at all. So we kept driving. It was running extremely sluggishly. It was pretty much impossible to get over 65 mi/hr, unless we were going downhill. We were running at higher than normal rpms. And burning thru gas almost twice as fast as normal! It was scary and frustrating, watching all of these cars, trucks, semi's, and vehicles hauling trailers pacing us going so much faster! Just my luck, it was sunday, so no auto places were open. Finally we made it to Billings, MT and stopped at the Walmart Supercenter. Some kid there was able to test my car's computer and tell us that the light was due to "cylinder 3 misfire". Unfortunately, this kid had no idea what else to tell us, and went back inside. We stopped in at O'Reily and I told them everything I knew. The guy talking to me there said that it could mean about 7 different things, and without having it checked out by a mechanic, there's no way to know exactly how to fix it. Well, we kept driving (and kept getting passed by dozens of semi's). Now we have arrivved in Bozeman, MT. We tried asking around at the gas station about the roads; trying to see if they were any flatter, or the same or worse, so that we could decide if we wanted to keep pushing out to Butte. But the people we talked to said that there were a few pretty steep and long passes between us. So, with it getting dark, and in the hope of getting my car fixed BEFORE hitting those steep inclines, we found our way to another Super 8 motel. I really, really hope that we are able to get my car fixed without too much $$$$$$$$$$$$$

Moving Day!!!

Today is moving day! I've been pretty busy and hardly busy at all for the last week. It was difficult because there was a lot I had to get done, but almost all of it had to wait until the last minute. That was the toughest part; knowing that I really couldn't do any packing because I had already gotten rid of most of my frivolous things when I moved out of my apartment. So most of the things i had left were all things that i consider important and would want to bring with me. :) In the interest of honesty for this blog, I will admit that i had one pretty rough night after saying goodbye to some friends and my sister and her kids. That same night, my mom told me that my brother had made a special effort to be at home, since it was the last night i would be at home. I had a total meltdown as i was trying to go to sleep. I cried for almost 3 hours. I was lucky that one of my friends was up and right there ready to text and support and encourage me. That was a rough night. But then it was friday the next day, and i went to get my car checked out for the trip and the tires rotated and balanced. By the time I got home, it was 1:00 and I had only 5 hours to pack and get ready to go to the bar to see my friends for a last little get-together before leaving town. I was surprised by how much i got done in that time! I got almost all of my clothes packed and all of my shoes packed. And it looked like i still had lots of room! So I had a great time at the bar! It was perfect! People came and people left. But i got to see and talk to everyone. And i got to dance a little bit. It was great. I slept like a baby, and now i am waiting for breakfast to cook so that i can eat and then finish packing like a mad woman! I hope it doesn't take too long to pack the rest of my stuff. I'd really like to get out by early afternoon. Ahhhh! I'll be writing some more soon, and probably uploading some fun pics!