AmAzing

I did something amazing today.
Well, at least amazing TO ME. I cleaned out my email 'inbox'.

For the first time in...well, never, I gleaned my emails down from
several hundred to only...drum roll please!

8!
Yes, you read right. I have only 8 emails in my inbox!!!!

Yeah! (I don't know why that makes me so happy,
but it does.)

Wanna know what else is AMAZING?

This little lady:

Her name is Helen, and she is my husband's grandma.

Helen and I share the exact same birthdate!
Except I was born several decades after her, of course.

This August Helen turned a mere 97 years old!
Way to go Helen!
You are an inspiration to us all.
At her age it's cool to state proudly how old you are, but
at my age...well, let's just say I'm 29 and holding. HA!

I hope I make it to 97 years too!!!

Back to Posting -Back to Work -Back to the Rat Race

Hi Everyone. I'm posting for the first time since April. Guess I took a little break. Sometimes posting felt like a chore for me, and I know many of my family and friends enjoyed them...but I decided that I only want to post if it feels FUN. And by that I mean that I, as well as you, get some joy out of my posts!

In 2 days I return to work. A job I feel so blessed to have in the current recession. I had an awesome summer vacation with my family. So hard to believe it's over. Since ya'll would rather look at pictures than "listen" to my ranting...here is a sampling of some of the things we've been doing since April:

Brian acquired a new (used) boat and a new hobby.
She's called "The Slack Off".

A visit to the Lefty store for our southpaws.

In June we took a fabulous vacation to Isla Mujeres, Mexico!

Had a fun reunion of Pepperdine friends in San Ramon, CA.

Sent my son, Zach, off on a week of adventure aboard houseboats on Lake Shasta.

Celebrated my baby girl's 13th birthday.
She waited all year for that cellphone!

Spent a week with my kids
helping out with Vacation Bible School.
They made great crew leaders!

Now, as I write this, my son is in San Luis Obispo, CA
riding quadrunners with his friend.
One last weekend of fun before he starts school as a junior in high school.

My daughter is vegging out, watching tv...2 more weeks before she
has to go back to school. Lucky girl!

Brian, my husband is working on "the Slack Off"
hoping to take us out for a ride later...
and me, I'm just trying to get myself organized.

Hope y'all are having a wonderful summer! Thanks for visiting!

My Pretty Pumpkins!

Are you growing pumpkins in your backyard?

Does it look like my punkies are growing words on them??

My cousin told me that if you scrape words or designs on a pumpkin while it is still growing, the scraped parts will "heal" over and looked etched in!
Isn't that COOL?

I LOVE IT!

Here's our last name etched in a pumpkin that hasn't turned orange yet.

My daughter plucked this beauty from the garden 2 weeks ago 'cause she was so excited to have a pumpkin. Hopefully he'll last 'til Halloween!

It may be only August...
but never too early to get excited about PUMPKINS!

Surfing- valley style

What do you do when there's no ocean around and you really want to go surfing?

Well, of course, you drive to Elk Grove Dream Extreme, and ride the Flowrider!

Here goes my son...about to wipe-out!

HOLD ON Zach! Don't FALL!

It only took about 5 tries until he could actually stay standing for longer than 2 seconds!

Now here's my best-buddy, Roxanne about to go for it.

What kind of best-buddy would I be if I didn't post pictures of her wiping out too??

Hold on, hold on! Don't fall YET! I gotta get my picture first!

Okay, NOW you can fall! Hahaha!

A Few Junkin' Finds

I haven't done too much junkin' this summer only because I'm making a concerted effort to SCALE DOWN and NOT bring more things into the home.

However, I have been hauling lots of things to Goodwill, giving things away and dumping things in the garbage!

So last week my daughter wanted to go garage sale-ing and I allowed myself to bring home a few things...

I found this picnic basket at a garage sale and couldn't part without it.

I spray painted it white...

and displayed on top of my armoire for now with my daughter's baby hat.

Here are few more things I picked up at another garage sale.

The tray and shutters will get painted...the tic-tac-toe will get taken to work to use with my students.

Here's my tray sportin' it's new "beachy" look!


Stay tuned for the shutter re-do!

Cookies, S'mores and a Pie!

Since I've been off for the summer I've been doing a lot more baking than usual. Here are a few things I've made:

Chicken Pot Pie

My friend, Karen, taught me how to do this one, and it's REALLY EASY!
This is a standard 9 inch pie. All you need is:
Ready-made pie crust that comes in a box and you unroll it.
Cooked chicken {I used leftovers from a roasted chicken}
A package of frozen mixed veggies {carrots, corn, peas etc.}
Cooked potatoes cut up in chunks.
A can of cream of mushroom or chicken soup.

Lay down the first pie crust layer in the pie pan and trim the edge.
Layer in all the ingredients.
Cover it all with the last pie crust layer.
Pinch the edges and cut slits on top to vent steam.
Turned out yummy!


During our rv trip to Oregon I got addicted to these.

I saw on somebody's blog that they made them in the oven- so I copied!
They got perfectly toasted in the toaster oven!

This week I had to make 6 dozen cookies to bring to some meetings.

Crinkle Cookies!
{Just like everyone's grandma used to bake!}

Ingredients:
half a cup a butter
1 and half cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp. of vanilla
4 (1 oz) squares of unsweetened chocolate (melted)
2 cups of flour
2 tsp. of baking powder
one-quarter tsp. of salt
powdered sugar

Set oven at 350 degrees. Mix ingredients. Refrigerate dough for 2 hours.
Roll into balls and coat with powdered sugar before baking.

They are so yummy!

I Found My Thrills...

The day before we set out for our Oregon road trip
I went blueberry picking with my friend, Lisa, her son
and my daughter.

Since I had never been blueberry picking before, I was quite excited.
We went to the Guisto's farm in Acampo.

I'm glad we decided to go at 7:30 am because it got hot out there quickly!

We found out that each bush has a slightly different flavor!

So you gotta pretty much taste as you go to ensure
picking your favorite taste of blueberry!

Between my daughter and I, we managed to pick quite a few!

I packed up a big bag to take on vacation with us and I froze the rest.

So far, I've just been eating them "raw" or making yummy pancakes.

Does anyone have any to-die-for recipes involving blueberries to send me?

Yes, We Were THAT Family!

...that family that took to the road in a rental rv
....something we've never done before
....but SO much fun!

After a day of packing her in 100 degree weather, the Jamboree was ready to roll!

Was it crowded in that "box" for the 4 of us?
A bit. But we each had our spots.
Here's Summer eating breakfast on her bed, which also happens to fold into the dining room table.

See the curtain drawn above?
That was Zach's {the teenager's} lair. He normally wasn't ever up for breakfast. The beauty of having an RV is that you take off and drive while he's still sleeping. RV's wait for no one!

The California giant redwoods

Scenic Oregon coast

The Game Park Safari was a fun place to hold wild baby animals.

And not so wild baby animals...cute none-the-less.

A Siberian Lynx cub
{Okay, I was a little nervous to pet him.}



I LOVE taking my kids to the beach 'cause no matter how old they are- they ALWAYS have fun together. It's like all the attitude disappears and they just become like little kids again!
I L.O.V.E. it!

Summer's seashell collection
{Okay- you got me. I was too lazy to rotate picture.}

Brian surf fishing. He did a lot of this, and sadly never had a bite! =(

Zach never caught anything either, but they had fun trying!

Oregon Aquarium, Newport, OR
Love the jellyfish exhibit!

The only picture of the 4 of us
I just hate bothering people to take our picture!

Riding the Oregon Sand Dunes.
Tons of fun until the hubster got his foot ran over! Don't worry, he's okay now. Just walks with a limp.

"You know you're a redneck when..."

...the local fireworks stand you visit {in Vancouver, WA} is a warehouse, has bounce houses and a snack bar!

We stopped to visit family in Vancouver, WA.

Brian's brother bought a case of silly string so we had a Silly String War!
Fun!!!!!

Cousin Brenna holding a sparkler.

After Vancouver, we drove south to Roseburg, Oregon and visited the drive thru Wild Animal Safari.

Next stop was the Hellgate Jet Boat Excursions in Grant's Pass.
We made the mistake of sitting in front
where you not only get a nice view, but also
lots of water ON you!

A Bald Eagle

Giant Osprey Nest

I took tons of pictures but these were some of my favorites.
Hope you enjoyed them!

It's good to be home again!