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WA, United States
I home school my kids, highly involved in my church, love to read, drink tea, and design tags.

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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

It's that time again.  Time for a coffee break.  Today I am frustrated a little because something that we were expecting and needing in the mail today was not there.  But I have other things to focus my energy on and so I'm blogging to get it out of my mind.

Don't you just love to watch your childrens eyes light up when you have gotten them something that they love?  Greg and  I were able to experience that.  Greg's friend came across a quad and came and told Greg about it, thinking that he might like to buy it for the kids.  It is a very small one.  But it's electric.  Of course, my husband can't say no to the deal that he was offered, and voila, we now own a quad for the kids.  Check out their expressions when they saw it....
They look excited don't they?  Boy oh boy were they!  But what a treat!  Imagine your dad opening the back of the van to show you this:
I think you would also be excited!  Sure looks cute in the back of my van doesn't it?  

Dad was sure to give the kids a lesson on safety before they were able to ride it.  And there are rules: 1.  Never ride without laced up shoes (they should have boots but we haven't been able to buy any yet).  2.  Always wear your helmet, safety goggles and gloves (safety goggles and gloves not bought yet).  3.  Must wear jeans.  Those are pretty simple rules, don'tcha thing?
The other day I decided to gather up my courage and cut the kids' hair.  Wow.  I spend some time a few days before to look up directions on how to cut both of their hair.  I don't do hair.  I can put it in pony tails and braid it.  That's about it.  But it's been so tough with keeping up on my bills and I haven't had extra money to take all of us in to get our hair cut.  So I just had to do the kids' myself.  I did pretty good for my first time.   Stinky's hair is a little uneven in the back, but who's gonna notice?  And if they do, what are the chances of them saying something?   And if they do that?  Well, then I turn around and walk away.  It surprised me that I had a bigger pile of hair for Bubba's than Stinky's.  


I found pizza dough that had already risen at Safeway.  All I had to do is come home, let it finish rising just a tad and roll it out.  Then we make a pizza.  So I did.  And here's what it looked like....ha ha ha
I forgot to check for air bubbles while it was cooking.  Oops.  It still tasted good.

There is a Renaissance Faire coming into town next month.  I love the Middle Ages.  So my kids and I are doing some studies on  Medieval times.  I am going to be blogging more about that on my blog, Teaching at Home in a Christian Way.  I am excited to go!  I think there is even a library book on order for the kids to make some of their own costumes to wear there.

Well I suppose I better stop typing and get off the computer.  The kids are asking and begging for me to take them for a ride on the quad.  I wish it was a little bit bigger, lol.  It's still fun though! 

A Cat's Tale

Most of you that follow my blog and actually read my posts are sure to know that I love cats.  My cats offer me love, craziness, unpredictability, fleas and a full litter box.  Now I will admit, some of these I could do without, but for the most part, I love them!

Solomon has been busy being quite the little terrorist.  It's a good thing for him that he is so stinkin' cute!  Here are a few pics of him being his naughty little self.
 Tom appears to be having a baby...
 Solomon knocked my book off of the arm of the couch and climbed into it.  I guess the saying is true, you really can get into a good book!
 And then there is Tom.  He is the almost 1 year old cat, stuck in the middle.  He loves to play with Solomon though.  They get along really well.  It's nice for Tom to have Solomon because Tom is a little bit more of the flighty type.  Here he was quite interested in my printer. 

 What is Tom interested in now?
He's watching Greg's TV.  But what has got his attention?
Wait, are those.....?
 TURKEYS!!
 I've been trying to convince Tom that he needs to workout a little.  I told him he could use my Wii Fit, but all he wants to do is sit there.




 And then there is Feisty.  I don't have as many pictures of her.  She doesn't care for me to snap pics of her too much.  Honestly, she really doesn't care for anything but Greg, cat treats, and catching snakes, mice, shrews, birds, rabbits, and rats outside.  She is the ultimate huntress!  I have a rare photo of her actually sleeping with one of the kids!  In this case it was Bubba and it shocked me!  We hear a lot of hissing and growling from her.  She has found a way to get on the roof and that is some solitude for her.  The other 2 cats are her main problem.  And I think she is holding a grudge with me for liking the other 2.
My house is alive with the joy of my cats.  A house is not a home without God, cats and books!


Monday, June 28, 2010

Family Pics and Picnics


It is not often that my family can do something and ALL of us enjoy ourselves.  For some reason, it just works that way.  But Saturday afternoon we had a great family day and all of us enjoyed ourselves!  I am so thankful that the Lord gave us such a great day.


The weather was beautiful and I wanted to get out and take some pictures.  I thought first that I would go down to the Farmer's Market in Orting and take some shots there.  I mentioned to Greg that it would be a good day to get out and take my camera somewhere.  He apparently thought so too!  But he didn't want to go to the Farmer's Market, that I knew.  But he had other great photo ops in mind!

A while ago he had shown me something that he discovered on one of his drives.  He likes to get out and just take drives.  Anyway, it's an old stone chimney.  It's the only thing standing around the whole area besides tress.  And the trees are old.  He also wanted to take me to see the trees that the beavers are chewing down by the river.  

We started out our day trip heading towards Kapowsin.  Our first stop was to get a few refreshments for our trip.  Across the street for the gas station that we stopped was a whole gang(?) (crew?, group?, flock?) of bikers neatly lined up at the Kapowsin Tavern.  Now for many of you who do not live near me, Kapowsin is basically a 4-corner town.  One corner is a gas station and another corner the tavern.  That's about it.  

I liked the looks of these bikers and decided to snap a few shots.  A few of them watched me and sat for me to take their picture.  

Our next destination was to see a huge tree that beavers have chewed almost all of the way through.  When we arrived at the spot, there were fishermen there so we decided to leave them alone and come back another time.  But I did see trees where the sap suckers are making holes to suck out sap (hence the name, sap suckers ;-P ) and I found it interesting that they make almost straight lines. 

 I was really excited about our next stop.  It was the old chimney.  I do not have a good enough camera to really get the details in my shots of this.  But one day I will and I'm going to go back.  The trees that are grown up around it are old trees, you can tell by the thickness.  So that chimney has been there a long time!  There isn't evidence of a foundation anywhere around it, so my guess is that it was a cooking chimney.  

Long time ago, kitchens were not built onto houses because kitchen fires were all too common.  So the kitchen was built away from the house.  Greg's uncle mentioned that a railroad used to go through there and maybe it was used at a camp for railroad crew or something of that sort.  There is a number on the front of it, you can't really tell what the number is by my pictures.  I don't know if it is a year or a type of address, or maybe if it was a work crew it was a number to identify them?  I don't know, but it is 2917.  That is carved in the shield.  Below the shield is a ribbon.  The left side of the ribbon has writing carved into it also, but I couldn't make it all out.  The center and right side as well had writing and says "of", but the right side was all worn smooth.  There is also an image on each side of the shield.  I don't know what they mean.

My pictures do not do it justice....This first picture shows the stone chimney hidden in the trees.
 Here is the front of the fireplace
 The shield that says 2917








 This picture below shows the size of the tree growing not too far from it.
 Greg always likes to drive on this road called Camp 1.  It is a road that trucks use for the rock quarry and I think it used to be for logging trucks too.  He sees lots of wildlife up on this road.  He's seen countless deer, elk, quail, bobcats and probably others.  With him I have also seen a baby coyote wandering around.  The kids and I don't necessarily enjoy this drive too much, but he does, so we endured for him.  :-)  I did take a few pictures on this leg of our trip and ended up with a beautiful one of a foxglove that I am going to save for another blog.  But I will show the picture that I took of a little water fall and the pictures of the foxgloves that I am not saving for another blog.

 Now it's off to more beaver trees.  I made sure to get the logs and the wood chips in my pictures because the kids loved it.  This first one I love though!  It shows the funny side of my husband.  I told them to ignore me and told Greg to pretend he was showing them something.  He did!  lol 





 This log below looked like brass in the sun.  My camera didn't capture that. :-(




Hanging out and having a picnic at the river was our last stop of the day.  We didn't get to relax and hang out quite as long as we wanted to because of some disobedience but still had fun all the same.  We let the kids get in the river where there was a calm little pool.  They certainly loved that!  Here is the path that we take down to the river.



 Bubba's strawberry with pepperoni.  YUCK!
My sexy hubby standing there with his Non-Alcoholic Beer.  
Can you see the kids playing?  It was so weird to be at a place where they could get that far away from me and I didn't have to worry.  There was no one else there.  It was just incredible.  I felt the presence of God out here in His wonderful handy works.  Very comforting.


 This rock appeared to have baby rocks stuck to it.



 I love love love putting my feet in mud!!


  Doesn't that look like a good family day?  Praise the Lord for that!!  

 

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