Say it ain't so, Stephenie.

Midnight Sun on hold INDEFINATELY? Say it ain’t so Stephenie Meyer.

I’m totally bummed, yesterday evening I saw that someone (Totally incompetent) had leaked (supposedly non-maliciously) part of Stephenie Meyer’s manuscript on her next project ‘Midnight Sun.’ which is Twilight from Edwards point of view.

The whole experience has moved her to put the whole project on hold indefinitely.
I’m aghast! No, no, no! Poor Stephenie.

She realized the internal turmoil it would cause us die hard fans to know there was that version floating around the internet so she saved us the Google search and posted ‘Midnight Sun’ on her website.

Of course I stayed up until midnight reading it. Couldn’t put the darn laptop down. It was that good. My husband kindly realized that I needed to become the invisible grieving mom for the evening so he kindly took over the kids and house so I could read. What a prince I have.

And even though I thought it was a great read I’m selfishly sad that I might not get the chance to hear the meadow scene or studio scene from Edwards point of view.

I can only hope that at some future date Mrs. Stephenie Meyers characters will move her to finish their story and that her friends won’t be so incompetent.

Accountability to the MAX!

I’m so sick of my weight plateau of the last few months I’ve decided to bring on the external accountability in hopes of achieving one of my big dreams for the year.

Here’s all 232 lbs of glorious me and how I probably looked in Jan 07.

Yes, I had to use a cane, but never again. Here’s the much improved and 57 lbs lighter me now.

I'm the watermelon standing next to Giggles, Sunshine and Fancy, my faithful and skinny workout buddies.

And my dream…

To be a sexy, hot mama and a total of 83 lbs lighter than my original starting weight by JAN 1, 2009. Don’t bother doing the math, I’ll embarrass the bageebers out of myself and just tell you. Probably make your day. I weigh 175 lbs. (GASP) can’t believe that I’m telling the world my dirty little secret. I’m still overweight, my Wii says I’m obese and then gives me a disapproving head waggle from my virtual Wii me.

Soooooooooo. I’m doing something about it. Now, This Day, No Looking Back, It’s ON! I'm going to lose at least 25 lbs. before the end of the year.

Here’s my 5 layers of accountability. I’ve spent the last few days lining them up and DREAM ON!

1. Put your money where your mouth is. To the tune of $100 Buck-a-roo’s! So my amazing friend Smiley actually thought of this one.

We are wagering $100 to the person who loses 25 lbs. first. We are practically twinners in how much we need to lose. Smiley was with me every step of my 20/20 program journey. She did the program right along with me. We swapped tot’s to go workout and to this day every time Hope see’s her she says, ‘Oh my Smiley’, and runs and jumps in her arms.’

So first one to lose 25 lbs. get’s the big bucks from the other. However, since our dream is on until Jan 1, they have to maintain their new and improved weight through that day. So if the winner hits goal and then gains 10 lbs on Thanksgiving turkey or Christmas pudding the person in 2nd (if at goal) may sneak the money back.

My good friend B thought of a good one as well. Donate money to a cause you fervently abhor every time you mess up and your sure to stay on track.

I know my mommy taught me never to bet but this is the exception. It’s for a good cause. I can always hope that we hit goal at the same time because then we can both do this...

2. Incentive or Reward. Since I’m going to win the $100 (Sorry Smiley, It’s all mine). I’m then going to treat myself to another Fawndear First. A Day at the Spa, and no it’s not Hope’s Spa, it’s the real sha-bang. Massage, Manicure, Haircut that costs more than $11 bucks, Facial, you name it I’m getting it. My very own make-over.

In fact Smiley was responsible for another Fawndear First last year – my first ever Pedicure!

We went back a couple of weeks ago to relive the embarrassing moment of seeing just how much dead skin can accumulate on one’s feet over the course of 30 plus years. Being ticklish, we giggled and snorted all while grossing out our little language impaired feet scrubbers. I guess its good we couldn’t understand what they were saying, but we could imagine it. Eww, Gross!

3. Record your dirty deeds. I feel my exercise is spot-on it’s the freaking food that gets me every time. So, I’m pulling out my meal tracker and logging every sinful bite I take and then some. I’m also logging exercise, water, vitamins, and pedometer steps. That poor old pedometer is going to be glued to my hip for the next few months – no if’s, ands, or buts. Meal tracking is my sure-fire ticket to win. I always lose weight when I track. Something about the thought of writing down 10 ho-ho’s keeps me from taking that first dreaded bite. And to keep me honest in my tracking...

4. Accountable to the masses. I’ve told five close friends that at any given time they can check my meal tracker and if I’m more than two meals behind in recording they get 30 minutes of manual labor out of me. Weeding, Scrubbing toilets, Chasing Rug rats, whatever cardio service they want (within reason – I’m not giving them a foot massage cause you can’t burn enough calories), they get. So I’ve got to cart that little meal tracker with me all the time.

5. You. So not only am I going to be accountable to my close friends I’ll post my weekly weight stats here. I know you’re thrilled. Who wants to hear from one more fat chick on the web? But I’ll be the fat chick with a little cheek thrown in to boot. And my after the makeover pictures should be one humdinger of a thing to behold. So tell me how great I'm doing and give me a virtual pat on the back, or cuss me out and tell me to move my fat lard a little bit more. Regardless, stick with me and pray I win that cash because I can’t afford to lose it.

On a side note I now have one working phone. So people can call me again. It's nice to know however that it's o.k. to turn it off if I need a little peace and quiet.

Not all's quiet on the Home Front

Things were a bit quieter around the Fawndear forest today and I couldn’t figure it out at first. The kids were as thunderously loud as usual but something was eerily quiet and then I figured it out.

My phone died. Our home phone is a cell phone. We switched to cell after going through hoop after flaming hoop with the phone company and never really getting anything remotely similar to customer service.

So our family had 4 cell phones: the Home phone was MINE. My husband and a cell phone, and we had one for the kids so that if I had to go anywhere they could still get hold of me. And Evo-man had a phone because well he’s Evo-man and he usually get’s what he wants or drives us bonkers until we succumb.

Evo-man’s phone met with a water accident, and the boys misplaced the kid phone about a week and a half ago. Prince Erik’s (merely a week old) phone got tossed across the room and died. And so mine was the last survivor. Until it mysteriously was found all quiet and lifeless this morning. No matter what I did no familiar beeps and blips of light protruded from its small screen. I tried two different chargers, taking out and replacing the battery and even some hand banging therapy to no avail. It’s gone.

I’m comforted in the fact that mine always lasts the longest. Maybe it’s because I insist on getting a girly looking hot pink phone and installing Disney Princess music as the ring tone. Something about the ringtone of ‘A Dream Is a Wish Your Heart makes,’ would easily make my phone one that any warm-blooded teenage boy would avoid carrying at all costs. It was truly a strategic tactic on my part. So it safely remained in my possession.

I don’t know whether one of my kid’s invisible friends attacked it, as they seem to be doing quite a bit of damage around the house as of late, or whether it died of natural causes.

Needless to say I’m missing my adult conversation. I can bet Prince Erik is going to take it nice and slow in replacing the phones because he doesn’t have to worry about me calling him at work and nagging him about this or that. It’s much easier to avoid email than it is to avoid the silly phone ringing.

So I guess I’ll go outside and visit with my neighbors over the fence or take my kids on a walk in hopes that I might get to talk to some adults today.

And for future ringtones… Maybe I’ll go ahead and have the kid’s phone play, ‘Another one bites the dust,’ in preparation for how frequently we seem to go through these little expensively annoying but very addicting electronic gadgets.

I think it will be good to deal without calls for a couple of days. Maybe I'll actually get something accomplished without constant interruption. We’ll see.

I 'TRI' - ed!!!

All those early morning swims in the rain…

Miles logged at the track and biking on the road,

Resulted in a bunch of crazy ladies letting a teenage boy doodle on our arms with Sharpie…

All so that we could pay someone else some money to swim, bike and run it all again.

So, my training buddies, Giggles, Sunshine, Fancy and myself completed our officialSprint Triathlon today. I'm the green thing with her eyes closed. It was their 1st time and my third. So as we trained I imagined myself their Non-expert mentor. More so Nazi-motivator who wouldn’t let them back out of the race. I got my payback when all three whipped my butt today. # 536 is someone who we met there who motivated Sunshine to finish the race. So thanks for nameless numbers who keep you going.

Sorry no great action pictures because my photographer Prince Erik did the race too. He finished his 400 meter swim, 14 mile bike ride, 5K run in UNDER 1 hour 30 min. His best time yet.

Me, myself and I bested my swim and bike times from last year only to be attacked by my Joy-Sucking Left Hip Malady again during the run. I only got ½ mile into my run before it crashed on me. The energy and heart were at an all time high and had I been healthy I think I could have completed the race in under 1:40. Not to be. I immediately stopped running started walking and tried to overcompensate with my right leg – then double whammy – the right hip started to follow the left hips bad example. Ugh! So I slowed even more and recorded the slowest 5K time of the day. Double Ugh! My disappointment was nothing next to the high from seeing all my friends do so well. Go Girl Power!

So I gamely finished in my all time worst Tri time of 2 hours 10 min. I think the 5K portion took me a whole hour because I was trying to be really careful. The key was that I finished, and I don’t think I did any extra damage to my hipsters and best of all (Wahoo) – I Wasn’t in last place.

Next year I think I’ll do it in Maui so that if I’m injured I can recuperate on the beach.

Cracking Up!

That’ it – I’m officially losing it. In too many ways to count.

Mental stability aside - the first thing I’m losing is the thought of quitting my Triathlon on Saturday. I’m going to do it regardless of how crazy my logic is. You see, I lucked out and got into my chiropractor on Monday and he cracked me up something crazy. A pull and twist here and there, snap, crackle and pop all up and down my back and neck and I’m a new woman – well mostly.

A year ago I’d have told you all chiropractors were quacks (never been to one before so I claim ignorance) but I no longer think that. Dr Magic Hands told me that I should be a little sore for a day and then I should be o.k. I wasn’t even sore for a day. Every now and then when I twist funny I feel a little tender in the hip but nothing like before.

I did a 10 mile bike ride this morning and felt nothing but great and I know the swimming won’t give my hip any problems. So if the soreness crops up during the race and all else fails I’ll power walk the 5k instead of jog it. But I’m still expecting to beat my times in the swim and bike from last year so my final time shouldn’t be too far off from last year’s time. So great news, at least for me!

There are signs everywhere that my kids are going wacky right along with me. The tropical heat from last weekend has disappeared and the cooler clouds and rain are back in full force. But that doesn’t keep my kids from pretending that it’s still summer even if the weather isn’t cooperating. I took them wild blackberry picking at a friends private lake.

Did I ever mention that I have the best friends? She invited a bunch of us over to her families little lake for some berry picking and swimming. I was hoping the rainy weather would discourage my kids from taking a dip but no.


Crazy Kids.


More kid crack-ups coming.

Princess came to me howling the other day because her invisible friend didn’t like her anymore. Should I be worried about this? Imagine your imaginary friends turning on you. I think it had something to do with Lea’s invisible friends trash talking Princess’s nothing friends and it exploded from there. I’ve even had to pull the car over because these two little girls were fighting over the fact that their invisible friends were fighting. Sigh! I’ve even booted said invisible friends from the car and made them walk home and told them that if they ever fought again I’d ship them off to Antarctica in a dingy with no paddles. Why can’t we all just get along regardless if we are see-through or not.

Then I noticed this new piece of damage in the hallway.

‘O.K. who put the hole in the wall?’

Six ‘I don’t knows’ later, and I’m suspecting those invisible friends retaliated back at me for making them walk 5 miles home. UGH!

As for the last reason that proves my mental stability is in jeopardy, well could you guess, it involves Hope again. If it wasn’t enough worrying that she might be dancing on the roof or playing Picasso on the walls. If that and swimming daily in the neighbor’s water feature weren’t enough - she has discovered the power of SCISSORS. And her first act of playing with them resulted in one less beautiful ringlet on top of her glorious head of hair.

I don’t know where exactly she wacked the offending curl from. If her hair was straight I’d probably locate it right away. But it’s so curly it hides the missing piece so I’m trying not to weep and wail.

As a rule we don’t have markers in the house. She discovered the back to school list supplies the schools always suck you dry with before school starts. And now the thought of hiding scissors or putting them under lock and key is probably going to have to be a hard and fast reality.

Well I'd better get back to the insanity I call home and family. I have to keep reminding myself that all these wild and crazy moments are worth it because I love my family too much to commit myself to the state looney house.

A Whole Lot of Nothing...

So I was checking out my friend Mother Owl Haven the other day and got tipped onto a great idea.

So our family has decided to play along. Nothing but Absolute Needs, and simple goodness for the entire month of September, and I can’t wait. I’ll be updating you on my progress every week. Can I handle taming my shopaholic tendencies? We’ll see?

I’m really motivated to get this going after writing out a check to the high school for around $200 for school class fees, student body cards, etc. And that was basically for only one of my six kids. So much for the money I was planning to spend on buying new back to school clothes.

I’ve got a couple of weeks to figure out how we are going to do it. So far the fast food, candy, movies, rentals, and stuff like that will be totally out of the picture. I’ll have to reach in my dusty bag of creative tricks to keep the family entertained on a budget of nothing. But I like challenges! Especially ones that result in more money staying in my pocket.

I was talking to Prince Erik and he wondered if he would have to give up the Bogus Basin Bike race he’s been training for all year. I told him I thought it would still be o.k. to do but we are rethinking how he will do it. Maybe we’ll have to find a friend near Boise that he could stay with so he doesn’t have to rent a hotel room. Pack his own food instead of eating out. Etc.

I’ve been tempted to stock pile a bunch of goodies to get ready for September but I think that would defeat the purpose of the challenge so I’m trying to live as close to normal up until day 1. In the next few days I’m also going to add up our averages to see how much we spend on utilities, groceries, gas etc. I’ll try and break them down so that I can really see how much we save by trying to stick to the whole nothing goal.

It might be similar to our No-Technology month of February. Dang hard to deal with at the beginning but easier and more fun near the end.

Anyway let me know if you want to play along. You can email me for the button’s code that you see above or check out Owl Haven’s blog to see her information on the whole wild and crazy idea. September can’t come soon enough for my bank balance – how bout yours.

Dreams and Nightmares

I guess I can’t expect all my dreams to come true without a couple of nightmares thrown in to boot.

First with the good dreams.

Finished my kitchen de-clutter goal that I started two weeks ago. The scary before...

And the splendid after...

Whippee! And Yes, I'm going to try like the dickens to have the counters stay this clear.

My master bedroom and the girl’s room are still faring rather well. The Laundry Room, well it’s slipped a little but I expect when the kids go back to school I might have more time to catch up once again.

So on with the not so nice dreams. I had huge hopes today would be another day where I could check off another dream accomplished. I was going to run a 5K in under 30 minutes for the first time. Great mostly flat course, good cause - Seattle Children's hospital, nasty hot & humid weather. What is it with the extremes, last week cold and rainy, this week amazon rain forest muggy.

I’m been working out like an Olympian (know what I've been watching too much of?) for the Sprint Triathlon scheduled for next Saturday and this was just another goal along the way.

Somewhere between mile 1 and 2 I felt an unwelcome friend come back to visit me. Last time it sidelined me for a month just when I was getting ready for my first half-marathon. I suspect its The dreaded leg tensor fascia lata syndrome but this time it was centered around my left hip.

Oh Joy! (Imagine that statement dripping with the most foul sarcasm your mind can summon). No, no, no, this isn’t supposed to happen. I even warmed up, stretched, hydrated, wore good shoes, etc., etc., ETC!

So I immediately backed off my push running and toned it down and finished the race in over 33 minutes. Maybe I should have stopped and walked but I was halfway away from the finish line anyway so I thought pulling back would help.

After the race I stuck a bag of ice down my pants. My doesn’t that sound nice. And my good friend’s mom had some Ibuprofen I could pop as well. I’ve been taking it easy but can feel the little bugger with every step I take. DRAT! Good thing I don’t swear of this entry would be bleeped and bloopered all over the place.

Early this week I’m going to go see the Chiropractor that put me back together for my half-marathon last time and hope he has miracle healing in his hands so that I won’t have to pull out next Saturday. UGH!

One good thing happened after the run. You know how they give out prizes. Well the announcer, none other than John Curly (Emmy-Award winning host) from the Pacific Northwest’s ‘Evening Magazine.’ Asked if anyone in the crowd had more than 5 kids. I guess you know who raised her hands. Me.

Check out my monster lower legs. Pure muscle and rock hard. At least I wasn't wearing a purple skirt like Mr. Curly. So my half dozen kids got me a $20 dollar spa gift certificate to a place that gives $60 treatments. Don’t know if I’ll be using it – maybe a hip massage would help?

I hate nightmares.

Two Year Old Epic - Future Olympic Freak!

I have been glued to the Olympics like a kids face to a candy store window. What with Michael Phelps’s epic achievement being broadcast and all. It’s hard not to think of much else. And no, it hasn’t distracted me in the least from my amazing motherly duties. I’ve even got a few suggestions to the I.O.C. about possible future events they may want to consider.

Toddler Tagging. I bet my two year old could out-tag yours any day. Why the other day when she was under the watchful supervision of her teenage brother (I was at a fitness class), she could have won a gold medal. With a couple of markers and a 15 minute time period, she amazingly tagged no less than 4 different rooms (minimum 1 wall per room)...




two different hallways...




... one air-conditioning unit...

...two tables...

mom’s sheet.

Beat that will ya!

And with the Olympics often comes coverage of proud parents and relatives cheering on their loved ones. You can bet the teenager and toddler are going to be doing some serious bonding while exercising the Magic Eraser all over those areas.

The next event would be…

Climbing. Don’t have your toddler try this at home unless you want a heart-attack! Sorry no pictures because it involved one of Hopes biggest Freak-Mom-Out episodes. I put her in my bed to watch a movie in the only air-conditioned room in the house. I’m selfish that way. Then I went downstairs to get something knowing that ‘The Little Mermaid’ Movie would hold her attention like no other. Five minutes later I came back up to check on her.

Freak out coming!

Are you ready for it?

Guess where she was?

On the Roof! Bet your two year old can’t do that. Nor would you want them too if your anywhere near sane.

She had climbed on top of the air conditioning unit and straight out the window. She’s seen her twelve year old brother go out the window a couple of times (against mom’s wishes, of course) and I guess she finally thought it would be fun to try this stunt herself. When I found her I immediately clamored out the window myself trying to sound calm even though I was having a massive Tremor attack so as not to scare her right off the roof and onto the cement driveway below.

Fortunately everything turned out o.k.

Then today she decided to try out my third suggestion for an Olympic sport.

Toddler Swimming – in the neighbor’s little water garden. Whenever Hope takes off there’s a wonderful chance that she’s visiting the neighbor’s little bamboo garden pond. At least she hasn't decided to round the corner and take off into busy traffic, like her big sister did and lived to tell about it.

Lucky for me again that the pond is less than a foot deep and she is an excellent dog paddler.

However I’m seriously thinking of taking out stock in or at least investing in the following products, especially if Hope is going to continue training for her very own Toddler Olympics…


Try climbing through these beauties.

Or holding onto markers with these glued to your fingers.

And the neighbors pond might be a lot safer is this balloon is fastened around Hopes body. She probably won't even fit in their pond with it on.

And this might help with Mom's peace of mind. Unless it shorts out if it get's wet.

Heaven Help Us both to survive.

Breaking Dawn Girls Night Out = National News Story!

Have you ever attended an event that was worthy of a blurb on National News. For me this is only the second time. The first was when I was in a crowd of people in SLC, UT when they announced that Salt Lake City was awarded the Winter Olympics. But I couldn't even pick myself out of the crowd even though I knew where I was standing.

So, Could this be my nano-second of fame? You may see my backside on the National News (Nightline on ABC) tonight because I and another 2000-something obsessed fans went to Stephenie Meyer’s Breaking Dawn Book Tour in Seattle on Tuesday. I think the camera’s were rolling (behind us) when they opened the doors as we went into the theater- if that clip even makes the program I'd be surprised. I’m wearing black like maybe 9/10th of the other attendee’s, a Bella pony tale and have my book waving high in the air as I’m giggling hysterically like some teenager high on something other than life. Although to be honest I don’t need any substance other than life to make me happy. Whew!

I had enormous hopes that this would be my chance to get a good picture of Stephenie. What with being on the Ticketmaster Website within 100’s of a second of the tickets going on sale secured me seats in row 30ish. I thought when they said orchestra seating DD meant I would be near the front. But alas we were a mere 30-ish rows back from the stage which means that my camera only picked up blur. So here is Stephenie in all her vampire speed blurish glory.

I was so enthusiastic that I bought eight tickets to the book tour. My family wasn’t interested in sharing more mental time with me but these brave and courageous chicks were, and I think they had as much fun as I did.

Rkimedes had to be the bravest since her own little Bella is due within days. I was wondering if the hysteria of the evening would put her over the top and we would have to make an emergency trip to the baby ward of the local hospital. We might have scared her little larval unit into staying where it was nice and quiet for a bit longer.

We even braved taking my gas-guzzle tank into a Seattle parking garage. Then we all repeatedly winced as the antenna scraped every bit of pipe or concrete outcropping of the ceiling. Fortunately we cleared everything by maybe ½ an inch. Never again will that beast venture into Seatlle. It’s just too darn big.

This creative family did, I think, make the news.

At least they said they were interviewed. I think they deserved the award for the best eye catching T-shirts. I may have to copy their shirts they are so creative. Especially the teenage boys, ‘Someone feed me, my mom’s reading Twilight again.’

Had a blast, even enjoyed a little new-age rock and roll provided by Blue October’s Justin Furstenfeld. The songs were more mellowed out because he preformed them on acoustic guitar. I don’t think I’ll count this as my first official concert because it was only around 5 songs. Still great!

Stephenie was as fun as last time I saw her. Thankfully the program lasted for just over an hour. Last time it was all of twenty minutes. Then it was the wait for the signing. And guess who surprised us as we were standing in line?

Our Best Western check-out lady from our Forks weekend. And Shocker of all shockers – she remembered Pazzaz and myself. Well I guess that isn’t too much of a shock seeing that we are a bit odd and stand-out as wanna-be teenagers. So our Forks-y Lady friend kindly caught us up on the festivities planned for Stephenie Meyer Day in Forks, WA on September the 13th and now I’m seriously tempted to make one more trip this summer. Hummmmm? Wonder if Prince Erik is opposed to a road trip?

Dream On - Kitchen Weight Loss Secrets

Searching for that elusive secret weight-loss miracle that’s a sure-fire way to shed those all-too-pesky pounds? I’ve discovered it and I’m about to make loads of money if I can figure out how to market it.

But, because I’m feeling a wee bit generous, I’ll share it with you for free. First of all have your two year old dump baby powder all over the kitchen floor.

You’ll get an extra cardio workout while sock skating from one side of the room to the other while trying not to biff it. Then, just think of the exercise it will take to clean it up. It will be worth the effort.

Want to improve your chances of losing your craving starved appetite. Well clear out those cupboards.

Chances are if you run into a few creepy crawlies nesting in your pastas, beans and grains you will lose your cravings for anything carbs for the next week. What a perfect excuse to chuck the carbs and eat veggies. Oh, and finding some baby food that expired two years ago will be an extra incentive to avoid eating. Again, so worth the purging. You'll even then have room to store some of the stuff from the counters.

Repeat this workout often –

not just once every two year or so like me.

You’ll be amazed at how the time flies when you make the kitchen your workout central.

So I mostly got this weeks challenge of eradicating the clutter monster from my kitchen but not quite.

Yes, I did work on this part of the kitchen as well but didn't finish it enough to take some coveted after pictures. So the kitchen, well, it’s going to have to be a two week dream-on challenge because I still have the dreaded Inside of the Fridge (The Holy Grail of weight-loss unappetizing, mold covered goodies and a few more cupboards in which to locate more forbidden yuckies.

And if you need to take a break from your cleaning workout. Go round up some adventurous and crazy friends.

Then in a single morning Swim 4-500 meters across a lake in 60 degree weather, ride 14 miles up and down hills in pouring rain, waddle jog/walk 3.4 miles. Then collapse from the sheer euphoria of surviving.

And this was only the dress rehearsal. We participate in our official Sprint Triathlon on the 23rd.

So this Friday the kitchen will be done, and I'll be a lot skinnier! Wahoo!

Naptime hazards

Never lay down with your 2-year old if you’re trying to get her to take a nap. Because chances are you will be the one to fall asleep while she merrily skips through the house reeking havoc with something or another. Especially with the baby powder! Nothing like covering the entire kitchen floor in a fresh layer of (softer than silk but slicker than a greased pig) powder.

She will then track her cute itty bitty footprints all over the house and under the noses of her oblivious five other siblings without them noticing a single thing amiss. After about 10 minutes of this the 6-year old will notice the floor is a bit more hazardous to walk on and will then come wake up mom.

I think I’m going to be pushing powder for a whole week. This act alone has convinced me that my Dream On room for the week will have to be the Kitchen. Tune in Friday to see if I manage to make the room streak free by then.

My Twilight Pilgrimage

I’m going to now vicariously take you through the Most Fun, Most Grown-up, Giddy-Girl-High Weekend I’ve ever experienced. However, as I’ve never been on a Grown-Up (though we don’t act it) Ladies weekend retreat in my life, (Another Fawndear 1st) I have nothing to compare it with. But as you can see from my photo ops, my perma-grin of happiness from experiencing several Fawndear firsts is plastered onto my face and will probably be there for a while.

DaringYoungMom and Eve started the whole idea rolling a while back and invited a huge circle of friends to come partake of our inner-child, school-girl, and obsession-fest with the Twilight Book Series by Stephenie Meyers. Nine of us were brave enough to make the once in a lifetime trek to the Olympic Peninsula to visit the settings described in her series. And we did it on the very weekend that the Fourth Book in the series ‘Breaking Dawn’ was released.

So here’s my trip in a long photo adventure nutshell – many of the pictures are taken with my B.A.B friend also named Fawndear who stood in as my replacement.

Wait three hours to ride a 20 something-ish minute ferry ride across the Puget Sound. Not too much fun...

However, It wasn’t too bad because my van buddies...

Pazazz, Ethel & Lucy, and Angela (poor-human-lady-who-has-never-even-heard-of-the-Twilight-Series-but-wanted-to-take-a-girl-break), and me had too much fun telling everyone on the ferry what we were off to do, eliciting strange and 'your mental' stares from many fellow passengers.

On our way to our evening gathering location in Port Angeles we made a little detour so Fawndear could drive through a local game preserve and meet some of her not-yet-vampire-food relatives.


Oh so cute!

Then it was off to the cushy Best Western.

...where we gladly paid and arm and a leg not to sleep in the beds for more than a couple of hours. We were there long enough to unload and then we needed to make it to our dinner reservations at Bella and Edwards’s first-date-but-not-really restaurant the Bella Italia in Port Angeles.

Where we're joined by DaringYoungMom, Eve and her 2 1/2 week old baby sweet Miss Annie, my roomies for the night. We figured sure bring a newborn along because we weren't planning on sleeping anyway. She was a doll and people were lining up just to snuggle her.

And get this (as I scream with excitement) we got the happy couples (Bella & Edwards) booth around the corner and next to a line of other booths. DYM ordered Bella's dinner of Mushroom Ravioli ...

Heavenly taste - However the price-tag was a once in a lifetime but worth it ticket

DYM graciously let me have one of her raviolis’. I'm not a mushroom gal - But Yummy!

I would have got the whole dinner but it had prawns in it and I didn’t feel llike tempting my seafood allergy so I ordered the Chicken Storm..a..bocca or something similar sounding that was divine. Well, we daintily ate, gabbed, giggled, conversed with our cute (Edward crushing) waitress for a couple of hours before we headed off to the… very same bookstore ...

(that Bella did not go in, on her scary evening in Port Angeles) for the midnight release of the Breaking Dawn book...

Talk about a party!

with hoards of real life, honest to goodness teenagers. It’s o.k. we fit right in.

I think they had handed out all the books by 12:05 a.m. I got mine around 12: 04: 30 sec.

We were soon back to the lobby of our nightly lodging establishment.

Where we quickly found out who were the sleepers and who were the Twi-hards who could stay-up-all-night reading. I made it till 6 a.m. then zonked for 1 ½ hours.


And our reaction to page 360…


Silent Screaming because we didn’t want to get kicked out of the establishment and DYM collapsing from the sheer brilliance of Ms. Stephenie's Writing…

And… yes my first adult experience with bed-jumping.

And no, I didn’t break anything.

Let me tell you eating and taking showers are inconveniences when you’re so sucked into reading a book. But we did them anyway and were off by noonish Saturday to continue our journey on to Forks, WA.

The primary setting of the novels and location for the most Fawndear cheesy grins and girly squeals you can get in any one town.

Poor Angela had me sitting behind her in the van, screaming and giggling hysterically (probably from lack of sleep) whenever I would see different locations mentioned in the book. All my vehicle occupants agreed that I should continue seeing my Young and Gorgeous Counselor on a regular basis.

So Forks, WA was very Giddy-Tourist-Camera-Wielding hospitable town. I was regretting that they didn’t have more Twilight souvenirs but its o.k. because the pictures are priceless.

Here we are visiting the fictional character’s very real sites. Like...

Bella’s truck in front of the Chamber of Commerce Building with an oh-so-adorable city greeter who would pick up and read her own copy of Breaking Dawn in-between the hoards of romance fans who entered the premises.

Then we visited Sully’s burger for a Bella burger with pineapple and plastic vampire fangs, the Thriftway grocery store for some of Charlie’s (explode the microwave) favorite spaghetti sauce…

The Swan Residence… The funny thing was they had a motercycle parked in the driveway. I think Charlie must have been on vacation or something.

And look whose parking spot we found at the Forks Community Hospital (more girly screams). The Dreamy Dr. Cullen.

However, the Mercedes wasn’t there so he must have been off hunting, I mean hiking. Drat!

Back to Forks High School and a few other drive-by photo spots before it was off to our favorite Werewolf haunt down at…

and my favorite destination of the Day - First Beach.

Could this be Bella and Jacob’s favorite seat?

Or was it this?

Love is in the air - Look how sweet. We found this cute couple on the beach reading the novel of Breaking Dawn together.... Oh How Romantic! (Prince Erik take notes)


Stunning Location! I had to shamelessly collect a few pieces of red-brown driftwood and rocks that looked like perfect moons to bring home. Look Kids what mom brought home for you from my trip - ROCKS!

Then all too soon it was over, and we were headed back home to finish reading the book and join the land of reality.


Total time it took to read all 700 plus pages of Breaking Dawn – 25 hours. But consider that we visited all those locations as well, not to bad.

Now I just need to get some sleep and plan my return trip. I can’t wait to come back!