Monday, June 30, 2008

How long does it take

to go through a whole bucket of water balloons. Well at our house, approximately at 9:19 or so they started throwing balloons and ended at 9:20 am. Giant Man Child and I spent last evening filling and tying water balloons and all I have to show for it is this (below)


Brotherly Love

I don't know why Chuckles wants to shoot me or is he the armed protection.


Believe me this picture explains so much - This is Chuckles in the dark.


Mr Bones

Her Highness

Sunday, June 29, 2008

SECRET Facility

Unbeknownto me, my youngest, Chuckles, was drawing a secret facility outside last night on my driveway. Not a hideout or simply a chalk town but a SECRET FACILITY. Chuckles cracks me up. Chuckles and his friend, Nick, were very busy. Evidently, this secret facility was to house their money they were robbing from banks. I am also raising a criminal. As summer starts off, I think Mommy needs a secret facility complete with crafting supplies, chick flicks, and Cherry Coke. A girl has to dream, right.

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Feeling Lucky

On one of our walks, Pappy found a 4 leaf clover. He also found a 5 leaf clover. How is your luck today? We dropped Pappy off at the "Butter House". Chuckles started calling it that and it stuck. It is a yellow house. Pappy was so excited. Deep down I think he was ready to be away from all the CHAOS of the two man wrecking crew. We helped him unpack some of his stuff.


On the way down, Pappy was trying to get a photo of Mt Rainier. Things kept getting in the way. On the way home when I wasn't driving, I took this shot. It was gorgeous day in the Pacific North West.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Reasons Why You Should Not Have Me Help You Move


Reason 97: I don't love blue tape enough. I definitely didn't use enough blue tape to indicate that I wanted items to stay. Though Chuckles asked the Giant Man child, who had written a note on blue tape and stuck it to himself, if he was marking himself so the movers wouldn't take him.

Reason98: I will have them pack everything. Yes, everything- the kitty carrier, kitty scoop, steam vacuum, rags. Hey, this is equal opportunity. They packed my cell phone wall charger.

Reason 99: I will lose you cat in a completely clear house. See picture below. Elvis, the cat, was hiding in a cupboard. We spent 15 minutes looking for you. Yes, I lose cats in completely clear houses.

Reason 100: The movers I am supervising will bust out your front window when moving your couch out. They managed to smash the window with the couch. It was an accident but disturbing none the less. They man handled that couch for over 30 minutes trying to get it off your little enclosed porch.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Santa Cruz


The last full day in California we had our teeth cleaned by our outstanding Hygienist, Nonna, and we took the kids (this includes the Giant Man Child too) to the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Just look at the picture above and ask yourself who is the biggest kid. LOL The kids really enjoyed the log ride and still talking about it. It really surprised me how much they enjoyed the ride. The Giant Man Child also took them on the giant roller coaster "The Big Dipper" They didn't like that too much.

The Adventuress Run Aground

I was saddened to hear that the Schooner the "Adventuress" ran a ground. A few details here and here on the mishap. I sailed and was part of the crew of her for a week in 1986. Our Girl Scout Troop got to sail her in the San Juan Islands and into the port of Victoria. It was one of the highlights of being in Girl Scouts for me. The above picture is me at the helm. Talk about a flashback. Stop laughing Mrs Respiratory Therapist, Mrs Epi, and Mars and I don't even want to hear it from you dear sister. I put these pictures in purely for your reading and laughing enjoyment.

This is a picture of us actually sailing the ship. Some boater took a picture of us under way under full sail. He got so tired of us asking him for reprints so he eventually I believe gave us the negative. This is also the trip we got to go to the Vancouver World Expo of 86'. Looking back I can't believe how brave our leaders were to take a bunch of teenage girls on this kind of trip. I was quaking in my boots just going on a field trip to the zoo. The organization for this was immense. We sold a lot of candy bars for this trip and stacked and recycled a lot of papers too.

Living in Fast Forward

I think I fast forwarded Pappy's life. The last couple of days have been the as far as he has gone in many years by car and I know without a doubt the fastest he has gone. I drove Pappy in his Mini Van. I joked that I was driving Mr Daisy. He has wanted to drive some of the trip but the traffic was just a bit too much for him. I told him he was a great GPS. We made time to stop and smell the flowers. This is Pappy picking some wild daisies when we made a pit stop. We saw so many wild flowers throughout Oregon. We kept seeing little white ones. Unfortunately, we didn't get to pick any of those.
Pappy had a lot of good memories to share on the drive as we were driving through country that he had lived in for many years. He had a lot of stories about rocks especially gold that was found throughout Oregon. We had some interesting discussions. He is staying with us as his stuff has not arrived from California. It seemed like all of California was on fire as we left. There was so much smoke. I guess lightening caused a lot of the fires.

Monday, June 23, 2008

I'm BACK!

We made it back safe and sound from our trip. I hope to post tomorrow with all the nitty gritty details. That is long old drive and I am SO GLAD to sleep in my own bed tonite!

Friday, June 13, 2008

Have Toilet, Will Travel

We are hitting the road tomorrow to deliver this porcelain beauty. Pappy needs a new throne at his house and since we replaced ours with a super flusher. We thought we would give him this one. I hope to update from the road. We will see how that goes. Without a doubt, I will be back to blogging the week of the 23rd.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

I'm Alive!

Sorry for the blurry picture but I just couldn't get a decent pic of this Shiny Chaperone Label. The fine print says, "I'm responsible for my children." That made me laugh. I made it back alive. It wasn't too rainy or too loud. We didn't lose any children and we got to see quite a few animals. The baby gorilla was definitely a showstopper. However, I really didn't have a decent photo of that. We also got to see them feed one of the spiders a cricket. The giraffes were out and one of them was trying to eat the leaves off the tree outside the exhibit.

Pray For Me

#1 Son and I are headed to the Zoo with all the 4th graders from his school. That is four 4th grade classes. The Zoo is two hours away. You do the math. Somehow, this sounded much more fun when I was signing the permission slip. Did I mention it has been raining non-stop? Like I said, Pray for ME!

Monday, June 9, 2008

Sand in My Tush



We got to go to the beach yesterday. One of the children was crying because they had sand in their tush. Meditate on that! LOL We were very lucky to be taken to a private beach by our dear friend, Mrs Epi. Thank you. The tide was incredibly low (-1 foot). It has been lower than that -3 feet this past week. It was amazing how far you could walk out. There were so many starfish.


Some of the starfish were just mounded up on each other. I don't know why one is red and all the rest are purple though this seems to be pretty common. There will be one red one among all the purple.

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Farmer's Day Parade

It is another single mom weekend for me so my friend who also is a single mom for the weekend too took our kids to Lynden's Tractor Parade aka Farmer's Day Parade. Lynden is known for it's Dutch heritage, Cows, and Raspberries. It was a little on the chilly side for a parade.

#1 Son took this picture of Chuckles, Bones, and Her Highness.

Another #1 Son picture, I like his perspective.


For you not from these parts, this is the machine used to pick raspberries.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

What is wrong

with this picture? We are now in possession of 6 St Joesph statues and we have zero plans to sell our house. Giant Man Child and I had a major miscommunication. Mrs Epi, Nonna, and Pappy are selling their places so we decided to get them all a St Joseph to bury. (There is custom of burying a statue of St. Joseph in order to sell a home.) Giant Man Child ordered 3 and I ordered 3. Now, we have St Joseph and his Merry Men.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Why did the chicken cross the road?

This email was featured on Steamy Kitchen just had to pass it on. Check out the comment section on this post on her blog - the myth buster one and the Paula Abdul one are especially good.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

BARACK OBAMA:The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN MC CAIN:My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure — right from Day One! — that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn’t about me…….

DR. PHIL:The problem we have here is that this chicken won’t realize that he must first deal with the problem on ‘THIS’ side of the road before it goes after the problem on the ‘OTHER SIDE’ of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he’s acting by not taking on his ‘CURRENT’ problems before adding ‘NEW’ problems.

OPRAH:Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I’m going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:We don’t really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

COLIN POWELL:Now to the left of the screen, you can clearly see the satellite image of the chicken crossing the road

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken’s intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE:That chicken crossed the road because he’s GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

MARTHA STEWART:No one called me to warn me which way that chicken was going. I had a standing order at the Farmer’s Market to sell my eggs when the price dropped to a certain level. No little bird gave me any insider information.

DR SEUSS:Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad? Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I’ve not been told.

GRANDPA:In my day we didn’t ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough.

BARBARA WALTERS:Isn’t that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart-warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life-long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON:Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:I have just released eChicken2009, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra………… Reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS:Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:Where’s my gun?

AL SHARPTON:Why are all the chickens white? We need some black chickens.

Growing

This Rhodie was planted by my front door for 3 years and it never bloomed. It grew and it didn't have any diseases but it never bloomed. I didn't even know what color the blooms were. Mrs Respiratory Therapist suggested that I move it to the back and lo and behold it bloomed. I think people are a lot like that, too. We can grow where we are but sometimes we need to move/change in order to bloom. Ali Edwards, coolest scrapbooker on the planet, had the following quote on her creative newsletter today and it bears repeating:
I will not die an unlived life. I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible, to loosen my heart until it becomes a wing, a torch, a promise. I choose to risk my significance; to live so that which comes to me as seed goes to the next as blossom and that which comes to me as blossom, goes on as fruit. [ Dawna Markova ]
OK, enough of the deep thoughts. It is frying my brain. Back to my regularly scheduled dribble.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Baking Weather

The sun is courtesy of the Diva. There was a lot of wishful thinking this morning that the sun might actually make an appearance. Cruddy rainy weather makes great baking weather I decided. I am making pumpkin oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Honestly you can't taste the pumpkin. I also decided I specialize in tasty but not that great looking cookies. The pumpkin cookies aren't especially lovely looking but moist and delicious. I was debating whether to make my sister's favorite banana cookies too. In my opinion, those cookies are evil. They never last more than a day at our house and they aren't that attractive looking either. They are based on the Land of Lakes Butter recipe minus the orange zest and glaze. Really there shouldn't be any debate. LOL Maybe my thighs should have a vote.