my carbon footprint

After a long rainy winter being stuck inside the kids and I were glad to finally see a break in the constant precipitation one day this spring. We all headed out to our stone throwing spot, a place on the canal with little or no traffic to try to rid ourselves of the feeling of being housebound. I bent down to gather more rocks when something caught my eye. A plug was laying on the ground. Not just any plug, it was my youngest sons. It had remained undisturbed since the torrential fall rains began to drive us constantly indoors. I curiously picked it up, amazed that it hadn't moved an inch since the day it was lost. It got me to thinking about the environmentalists big push to not make a mark on the earth (carbon footprint) and in some ways I agree that we should take care of what God has given us. My parents were constantly reminding us not to throw trash on the ground or out the window of the car, to respect others property etc. My family goes to the beach and picks up trash for fun (anything is fun when your under 10 years old) it is helping my children understand the importance of picking up after themselves and taking care of Gods earth..but as far as not leaving a mark on the earth through excessive support of an environmentalist's agenda and propaganda I draw the line.

I choose to worship the creator not the creation.

garden experiment

cherry tomato plant among herb garden

sugar snap peas and raspberry plants


this year it was a small experiment, next year its going to be much bigger, If I can make seeds grow in small proportions why not try for more.

house-bound

welcome to the coast. yesterday morning when I stepped outside the air felt just like fall, crisp and cold. Today its raining..sideways. The kids are rioting in protest and I am hiding behind the computer.

Lovely summer.

pea gravel

this is my daughters creation
this is mine. I kind of wished I had even more time so I could finish the face and move onto the body, yes maby I am crazy..but really there is nothing like going out with a bang! My daughter gave me the purple rock for added color in his eye. Needless to say, we had fun playing in the pea gravel

happy anniversery!

Can you tell that my husband is thrilled to pose for this one?
We went to a new pub and grub in astoria

its hard to believe we have been hitched for 7 years today!!

Gregs Got Gangsta

last night was awsome. we went to lunch at fort george then cought an early movie "hellboy 2" probubly my favorite movie of the summer, even more than batman, suprisingly. When the movie was over we went out for desert at baked alaska, then dinner (thats the way I like it) at 'f'oolios' after dinner we went to jurney to the center of the earth. it was definatly a night to remember :) Best anniversery yet! look out 8 here we come.

loyal friend

This is our first child 'Nancy' here she is as a bit of a pup,..I think this was taken when she was 3? this is Nancy today. I do have a weird story to go with my dog.

We have officially lived in our house for over a year. I have been gratefull to my dog for her ever watchful eye. several months ago she was barking at someone around the corner out of view so of coerce I look and there was somone giving Nancy the 'bring it on' arm gestures. His stance immediately changed when he realized he had an audience ( I think slightly embarrassed) Then a while later a stranger kept walking next to our house, he bolted off when we let Nancy out to bark at him. later he came walking back by and asked if she could jump the fence. Its a good thing that my husband was out there I would have told him yes. Today somone else came home and kept whistling toward our house. I looked everywhere for a deer or bird, nope! she was whistling at my dog. She stood there forever and my only assumption is was she trying to get my dog to bark. I just don't get why people feel the need to antagonize a dog much taller than they are. Alas, I will probubly never know. For now I am eternally grateful for my very faithful family guard.

Seeing these gave me total

'em shoe love'

I think I met someone.

It has come to my attention....Let me try again. If life could walk up, in the flesh, and slap me with reality, It would have today. I will spare you with the mundane details of my errand running. Quite possibly you would turn your computer off out of complete boredom. (reality shows make it look so much more exciting) If the end hadn't been so interesting I myself might have stopped typing and fallen asleep right in from of my screen.
It happened at the library. We were there to find more books in hopes of killing the dreary, coastal summer with interesting subject matter when out of nowhere another woman walked in with *gasp* three children. She was also clean. Not shower clean, Clean like a decent mom and person. I became hideously aware of a terrible Oder coming from my non-deodorized armpits, but I pressed forward and started a conversation. Whatever it is that causes me to become nervous or tell extremely lame and not funny jokes was thankfully somewhere else at the time. It sounds ridiculous but It was amazing to meet someone under 45 this far up the peninsula and after I left the library for home I actually had to restrain myself from calling the number she gave me right away to make sure it was real. That's when it hit me. I miss people. Its easier to accomplish things with fewer bodies in the house and things are more often put away, but today I was encouraged to keep trying realizing God has a mom friend on the peninsula just for me.

who do you think is running the show??

this is my fav of the three pictures because the blocking is perfect, very rarly do my mini-subjects stay still long enough for that to happen


up up up the hill... I really had alot of fun photographing our camp adventures.

our trip to the woodland park zoo was really fun here are some pics of the adventure.

my kids are standing next to angel and jason, nadines grandkids.

the spiderweb was the favorite stop in the whole zoo!


by far the coolest part of the whole exhibit was the komodo dragon, I felt like I had stepped onto the set of one of those cheesy sci-fi movies

This is the baby's self portrait,..notice the cunning angle and the way he captures the essence of uncleanliness!!

the start of it all.

This is a picture my daughter drew of sponge bob and jellyfish. The crazy thing about it is she did it all on her own,...I didn't even tell her what to draw or show her how to draw it! shortly after she turned five was when she drew this.the reason it blew me away so much is she showed little if any interest in drawing or coloring to the point of me calling it quits in the arts department of daily play. Then one day she picked up the markers and drew it from the memory of the cartoon. I especially like the big flower clouds. It makes me happy to see her draw. It was my constant comfort for years when I was young. Plus,..what mom dosnt like a reason to brag about thier kids?

have you ever been tempted to do something fun?? I found this gorgeous Harley on Craig's list in Seattle... isn't it HOT! sadly I am probably going to wait until the winter to get a better deal on a bike but this style is defiantly for me. I think I need to dye my hair blond and get some extensions though.

here we are at camp,..what fun. miles and miles free of traffic and noise.other than the hum of a generator or two

a little goes a long way

several years ago I was sitting...okay, okay..A lot of years ago I was sitting in science class taking a test feeling like an idiot because everyone was cheating except me. As a matter of fact they were even trying to help me cheat. My brother and I have this slight problem with honesty. Its not really what you think though. We have a tendency to be overly honest. I knew that if i chose to cheat, inevitably I would end up telling the teacher and getting an 'F'. I remember sitting next to a Cool friend who was feeding me unwanted answers left and right. I asked her to stop telling me and chose to get the answers she gave me wrong just to make sure no guilt rested on my overly boisterous conscience. It seems crazy, obsessively honest and perhaps a bit O.C.D. but the weirdest thing happened years later. One of the friends I had, who often cheated in class, came up and thanked me for my honesty. I looked at her like she was crazy but there you have it. People notice, not just the bad, the good too.

feeling the effects of time

The realization of something hit me this morning as I was laying in bed feigning sleep. I'm sore. my ankles hurt, my hips hurt and even though its 6:00am and all the kids are still miraculously sleeping I cant seem to stop hurting enough to fall back into dreamland even for 10 minutes. I pondered the origins of this unwelcome pain until around 6:30 when the first of the tree began to make noises. Like always I picked him up and headed down my small flight of stairs, feeling all 14 steps, thinking 'this is probably only going to get worse as I age.' I made hot chocolate and began to read books to my now 2 wakeful boys. After the third one came down the stairs I made my last cup of H.C. for the morning and gingerly poured myself a steaming cup of liquid happiness when it dawned on me. No, I haven't been overly crazy in the past few days..I haven't even jumped out of bed. The injury I was now feeling the effects of was quite simply put, egotistically inflicted. You see about two days ago my husband and I were discussing toe touching and I arrogantly bent over and touched my palms to the floor going as far beyond toe touching as one can. Did I stop at that? No. Not only did I do it once to prove a point. I went as far as to do it a second time in order to rub it in after he informed me how jealous he was of my flexibility. Three days later I am sore and a bit of a cripple. Its a good thing I didn't follow it up with a back bend from the standing position to the floor. Probably would have had to call the paramedics of which I know all.

Two weeks of wonderful sunshine! I am now back from vacation in Leavenworth, happily perched on the Pilate's ball that serves as computer chair, to give you a 'sum-up' of all the events.

We took the 9 hour trek in the ancient church van, ignoring the usual clunks and whirring of a very old engine and surprisingly made it there without breaking down. We spent the first week playing with friends and going to the lake. Having the youngest be 2 made life so much easier and all three of the kids were happy to play in the cold lake. Last year at the same time the temp outside made it impossible to handle lake the icy water. The baby did manage to eat a toxic substance, but like always after allot of communicating with poison control he was fine. The next week the van died and on our way to the lake (in the camp bus) the driver crashed into the camp gate which gave the kids quite a scare. We decided to stay home after that. On our way home we popped into Seattle for a fire festival and the zoo. Everything was a real blast and the only thing totally mortifying about the entire vacation was when the baby chose to pull his pants down in the butterfly exhibit and pee on the gravel in front of God and everyone. I looked over to catch him mid stream. Scolding words began to leap from my lips when I noticed My husband standing behind him laughing. With one foul mental swoop I decided not to finish my 'dont do that sentance' instead I did what every mostly sane mother would do....I walked away and acted like I didn't know who's kid He was.
the end.