Happy Birthday Gram!

Picture from Gram's birthday July 2009

Today has been a melancholy day. It would have been my Gram's 82nd birthday. I miss her very much. I placed some pink and white carnations and a birthday balloon on her gravesite today - she really liked carnations, second only to sunflowers. The store didn't have sunflowers, so I chose the carnations. It still seems very weird not to have her around anymore. I miss her coming over, playing with the kids, having dinner with us - just being there to be a part of our lives. It's been very strange without her around these last 8 months.

Gram - you are misssed and loved. We carry you in our hearts forever.

What a fun weekend!

I love three day weekends! All of our weekends are three day because James works four 10's and so he is off every Friday. This weekend we packed a ton of fun into it. On Friday we spent the afternoon at the pool playing with the kids, and the evening at the ball game with a bunch of friends. On Saturday, after sleeping in and lounging in jammies until noon, we headed out to the local water slide park for James' company picnic - we all had a blast, and Daniel even went down the giant slides with Daddy. After grabbing a Papa Murphy's pizza on the way home, I got to go to a bridal shower while Daddy stayed home with the kids. On Sunday, after a blessed morning at church, I got to go to a baby shower, and then came home and got the family for our Life Group picnic at the park. Tons of family fun this weekend, and the kids are pooped out! I love these kinds of days - just fun and family time. It really refreshes everyone.

Here are some random fun photos of the weekend.

Organics at Bountiful Baskets

The Spokane Bountiful Baskets have now added organic fruits and veggies to their offerings each week. It is $10 more for organic. Here are a couple photos of the organic offerings they had today.

Sunday Shutterbugs - N is for Nature

This week Sunday Shutterbugs has posted Nature as the theme. I have two photos for this, both taken near the Bowl & Pitcher Campground on a June weekend of camping. Enjoy!

Camping with Kids

We spent the weekend camping with our kids up in the Colville National Forest at Sullivan Creek, just above Sullivan Lake. It was a lot of fun. James and I have been going to Sullivan Creek since we were first married (wayyyyy back in 1994!) We are extremely familiar with the area, and have probably camped in almost every spot along Sullivan Creek. It's so beautiful up there. We got up there late this time, lunchtime on Friday, so there were only two spots left, both across the road from the creek. So we camped in the better of the two, and our silver lining was that the bathroom was at the beginning of the entrance into our camp spot. Score! No digging holes this weekend!

Friday was spent just setting up camp and cooking dinner and letting the kids explore our area. We did walk down the road a bit to a good spot to get into the creek, and the kids had fun throwing rocks in. Gretchen and Daniel took their shoes and socks off with me and waded in the creek a bit. Austin left his on, and was throwing rocks, and ended up slipping and falling into the creek, getting wetter than the rest of us. But he did it with such grace! He thought it was kind of funny.

Saturday we fixed a big pancake and bacon breakfast, and then packed into the van and drove down to Sullivan Lake (about 5 or 10 minutes from our camp spot) and swam and had a picnic lunch. The kids had a ball with it! We then drove into Metalline Falls, and treated the kids to ice cream sundaes, right after mommy shopped at Sweet Creek Creations quilt store. This is a famous quilt store with a liquor store in the back end of it. Perfect for everyone! When we sat down for our ice creams, Daniel said, "you mean, we get dessert before dinner? Cool!"

We stopped at Mill Pond on our way back to the camp spot and explored the spillway - the kids thought it was a cool waterfall. Although Daniel almost gave me a heart attack when he started to climb the bridge railings to see the waterfall better. James snatched him down quickly, and it was about 10 minutes before my heart was back to normal pace!

Our dinner that night was yum my rib eye steaks cooked over an open fire - heavenly! After dinner the kids were definitely showing signs of being overtired - running around like banshees chasing each other. But we giggled more than we've giggled in a long time! Daniel got a bad case of the sillies, and was just being goofy, which then made Austin and Gretchen silly goofy, and pretty soon we were all laughing! But we finally got them settled down with some jiffy pop popcorn and a great game of Diego 1-2-3. They were all asleep in the trailer before we even got the door closed I think!

Sunday we had a yummy breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, and then got everything packed up. We were on the road by about 10:30 or 11 am, which was good. We topped off our weekend by eating lunch at the Ram Drive Inn across from my old high school - and ran into some of our church friends while we were there.

It really was a great weekend, and the boys both said their favorite part was helping Daddy build the camp fire, and Gretchen's favorite was seeing the momma and baby deer on our way back from Mill Pond. My favorite part was drinking wine and reading my book and talking with James as we sat by the camp fire - such a relaxing weekend!

Sunday Shutterbugs - M is for Macro

The Challenge on Sunday Shutterbugs is to post a photo using your macro setting on your camera. I experimented this weekend with some still life shots using my sister's camera. Although I didn't set it on macro, I tried to take some close up photos for a different perspective on things. Hopefully it worked. Here's my submission:



And here's another one I liked:



I'm not sure if it hits the challenge exactly, but it's what I have for now. I accidentally left my camera battery charger in our hotel room when we went to my brother's wedding Father's Day weekend, so I can't use my own camera right now. I should be getting the battery back by the end of this week, so then I can experiment a little more with macro.

The End.....

....of some busy things in my life. If you know me even a little bit, you know that it is very hard for me to say No to activities and involvement, and very hard for me to sit still for more than 5 minutes at a time. But this week I said good-bye to two activities that have kept me extremely busy for the last couple of years.

I have been a member of my MOMS Club since September 2006. In July 2007 I became secretary, in July 2008 I was voted in as the AVP (in charge of Service Projects), and in July 2009 I was voted in as President. I have had a ton of fun in my board positions, but now, as of this month, I am simply a contributing member of MOMS Club. I am looking forward to the change. A great new group of ladies were voted in to board positions, and I know they will do a fantastic job of leading the chapter.

I have also been involved in Relay for Life since 1996, serving as a participant for the first couple of years, and then as Silent Auction chair since about 1998. In 2008 I was asked to be the Relay Event co-chair for 2 years, and it has been quite the ride. Soon after I began my co-chair position I had my brain aneurysm, so trying to deal with that along with planning the Relay was quite the challenge. But it's been a good two years, with two successful relays under my belt. Of course, the Spokane Relay for Life has been going strong for over 20 years, so I don't think I could have really messed it up too badly! But now, I'm done with that as well. There are two new chairs to handle the event for the next two years, and they will do an awesome job! Now, I can just be a contributing member of the planning committee, and concentrate on being team captain for my MOMS Club team.

So I'm feeling very relieved right now. It's going to be weird, not having those responsibilities on my plate anymore, but I think it will be a nice break. Austin starts kindergarten in the fall, Daniel goes back for Pre-K, and Gretchen starts her first year of preschool. So for three mornings a week, I won't have any kids at home. Wow! That will be a change! But one I'm looking forward to.

I'm mobile!

Well, kind of anyway. A very good friend of mine loaned me her laptop, and now I can be on the computer at the same time as hubby. It's nice to be able to sit in the living room, catch up on my dvr'd shows, and surf the web, too. I know, very "couch potato" but sometimes my days get so busy and full of things, having some couch potato time at night is very nice! I'll be able to update my blog on a more regular basis now, too. Yea!

New baby in the house

We have a new baby in the house! Yesterday around dinner time we took placement of a 3-month old baby boy. I found out today that it looks like he'll be placed with an aunt on Tuesday afternoon, after a court hearing. So we won't have him for very long. I don't know what is more of a challenge - taking care of an infant again, or keeping my own kids out of his little chubby face! They just want to surround him constantly, and I think he gets a tad overwhelmed! He slept ok last - down to sleep around 9 pm, up at 1:30 and 5 am for feedings, and up for the day at 8 am. This afternoon has been a struggle for him - I think he's realizing this is not home, and has been very fussy. But he's good right now - he's cooing to Gretchen while he is in his swing. Hopefully those coos won't turn in to screams!

Scrapbook Page

The kids went down to bed really easily tonight - they were all asleep very soon after tucking them in. So I took advantage of the quiet night, and the fact that Relay for Life is all done, and I spent some time in my scrapbook room. I'm slowly starting to get it all cleaned up and organized. We put one big floor to almost ceiling shelving unit in the room last weekend, and I was able to get a bunch of stuff organized and off the floor. I have another shelf to put in there, the same size, but that one will be for all my sewing stuff, mostly quilting. Hopefully before too long the room will be just as I want it!

Here's the scrapbook page I did tonight. I followed a sketch challenge on scrapbook.com.

Diamond Lake Gretchen
by Inkyscrapper
Scrapbook.com

I won a prize!!!

Remember this post? I just found out I won!!! Woo-hoo is right!!! I'm so excited, and can't wait to get the prize in the mail.

Now, go check out the sponsor's site - Blue Moon Scrapbooking and see what great items they have for your scrapbooking and paper crafting projects. Beautiful stuff!!!

Thanks so much to Lynette at Desperate Army Housewife and to Scott & Lisa at Blue Moon Scrapbooking for this incredible prize package!

Wedding Mints

My mom and dad came in to our house today to help make wedding mints for my brother's wedding. I can't believe that in all the years that my grandma was making wedding mints for family members, I never once helped her. This was my first time making the mints, but it was much easier than I thought. They hardest part was getting the color the mints to match the wedding colors exactly. Even my dad joined in and helped mold mints. It was a fun afternoon! After we were all done with mints, we enjoyed a great steak bbq dinner, complete with homemade potato salad and coleslaw. The weather even held out for the kids to go outside to play with James and my dad. All in all, a good day!

Cake, Batter and Bowl blog

Are you a fan of Ultimate Recipe Showdown on The Food Network? If so, do you remember Kerstin from the desserts episode? She has her own foodie blog, and it's got some great things on it. Right now, she is hosting a contest to giveaway a Thomas Keller Ad Hoc Cookbook. Go to her blogCake, Batter and Bowl to enter her contest. And peruse some of her recipes - they sound amazing, especially her dessert sushi ones.

Sunday Shutterbugs - Kiss

Another week, another photo theme! This time at Sunday Shutterbugs, the theme is Kiss. And I couldn't resist this photo of Daniel and I exchanging Eskimo Kisses. It was taken in June 2009 by my sister.

White Water Rafting

I joined a group of 26 other women from my church today for a white water rafting trip down the Spokane River. It was about a 5 mile or so ride, and my very first experience on the river like that. We went with a an outfit called Peak 7 Adventures and I think they did a really good job. I didn't fall out of the raft at all, but I did lose my foot grip going through the Bowl & Picher rapids, and ended up face planting in the middle of our raft. Better than dumping into the river! But it was fun, and something I would probably do again.

Wacky Wednesday

Today was Wacky Wednesday at preschool, so the boys dressed in some really crazy stuff!



We also decided to go to the Central Y to try out their pool today. The kids had a blast! They have a really cool water feature for kids, and we pretty much had it to ourselves. There were two kids there when we first got there, but they left after about 20 minutes. So the kids had a blast zipping down the slide and splashing in all the water features. I should have taken pictures, but didn't. Oh well, next time!

Busy Day and Monkey Bars

We had a busy day today. We started off with running to the grocery store, because I was missing a key ingredient to a pie I needed for my MOMS Club meeting. Then we zoomed over to the meeting, took care of business, and then headed to the park. The kids desperately needed to play off some energy! I had all the fixings for lunch in the car, so we just had a picnic in the park. Ahhh, that's better!

James has been working with Daniel on going across the monkey bars. Today, before I could get my camera out of my bag, he started zooming right across! I managed to catch the last half of it.



After the park, I headed over to my friends house to drop off the kids for a couple of hours so I could get some errands done. What a nice sanity break! Ever since my grandma died in November, I haven't gotten those. She was always so good about coming over to the house a couple times a week to play with the kids so I could get things done. In more ways than one, we really miss her! I miss just talking to her, and the kids really miss having her around to play with. She left a giant hole when she died.

After running errands, I picked up the kids and we headed out to the Y for a kids Zumba class. That was a lot of fun! The kids danced around, sometimes doing what the instructor did. I finally felt comfortable doing Zumba! The kids lasted about 3 songs, and then I took them down to the kids drop and play area so I could sign up for a personal training appt. and chat with my friends. Then we left and met James at Shakey's Pizza for dinner. Our church was holding a fundraiser there, and since we had been so busy, it was nice not to have to cook that night. They have great pizza and a fun play area for the kids.

After tucking the kids into bed, I headed out to a friend's house to help her with a quilt project. It will be a challenge, but I think a fun one. We'll see!

So, that was our day - busy as ever! Whoever termed the phrase "stay-at-home mom" was crazy - we never stay at home!

Menu Plan Monday

It's been a long while since I've posted my Menu Plan. Here goes!

Monday - Leftover Love - everyone gets to pick what they want for dinner!
Tuesday - Tacos and Fresh Fruit
Wednesday - BBQ Steak, Bakers, Roasted Cauliflower
Thursday - BBQ Chicken, assorted salads & fruit
Friday - Daddy Dinner - Mac-n-Cheese & Chicken Patties while Mommy goes out with her Bunco friends!
Saturday - Parade Picnic - our annual town parade and yummy food!
Sunday - Lasagna for Home Bible Fellowship night

Check out more than 290 other weekly menu plans over at Organizing Junkie - lots of great ideas!

Jump for Joy!

Over at
Sunday Shutterbugs, the theme this week is "jump". I couldn't resist putting up this photo of Austin jumping at Gearhart Beach, Oregon. We took our first family vacation there last August. I got some really great photos of all the kids jumping, but this one by far was my favorite.

Scrapbook Supply Giveaway - woo hoo!

Another great giveaway! You've got to hurry on over to Desperate Army Housewife blog and check out the Blue Moon Scrapbooking American Crafts Giveaway. Lots of great goodies are up for grab. I'm crossing all my fingers and toes hoping to win!