rambling as usual...

Tangy Tomato Soup

2012-01-08T15:28:00.001-08:00

After church today I decided to make one of our go-to easy after-church lunches, grilled cheese and tomato soup. Usually, I keep some of those yummy boxes of Pacific Natural Foods tomato soup in the pantry. I looked in the pantry today, and they were all gone! No tomato soup to be found. So I decided I had better try to make some!

I first thought of diluting some tomato paste for the soup base, since I have a can or two of that sitting around. I looked up several recipes for more ideas. Then I remembered that I had canned some tomatoes in the fall, using a recipe from the Ball Blue Book for Roasted Roma Tomatoes. This recipe uses roasted romas, roasted garlic, onion, oregano, salt, and pepper. It was great too, because I had fresh romas from a friend, a bunch of garlic and onions from my CSA box, and fresh oregano from the garden! I love having these things on hand so I can try new recipes.

So far, I hadn't used any of these canned tomatoes yet, and honestly, wasn't sure how I was going to use them up. So now, I know. Whenever I need tomato soup, I'm going to use up my roasted romas to make this yummy soup recipe!

Because I'm not experienced in making my own recipes, I had to share this one. Try it if you want, and if you find a way to make it better, please share it with me!

Tami's Tangy Tomato Soup

Ingredients:

1 Pint Roasted Roma Tomatoes (recipe from Ball Canning Blue Book)
1 tsp Celtic Sea Salt
1 tsp Better than Bouillon Organic Chicken Base
1 C heavy cream

Method:

Pour tomatoes into blender jar and blend the tomatoes until very smooth. Pour blended tomatoes into a saucepan add cream. While heating to desired temperature, add salt, chicken base and cream. Stir and adjust seasonings to taste.

If desired, add fresh ground pepper, basil, parsley, or any other herbs or seasonings you like! I'll bet this is super yummy with some fresh basil thrown in.

Pour into bowls and serve with grilled cheese sandwiches. Yum!

Enjoy!

Mountain Rose Herbs Giveaway

2012-01-03T17:03:00.005-08:00

Ok. I am super excited about this giveaway.

I already make my own laundry soap, which is super easy and I believe I have been remiss in posting about it. I will soon remedy that situation.

I would love to make more cleaning solutions to use around the house - and this company might just help me be able to do so, for free! :)

This giveaway from Mountain Rose Herbs is amazing!

If I happen to be the lucky winner, I'll definitely post back and let y'all know how many great items I'm able to create from all these wonderful ingredients.

I hope I win.
:-)

Italian Prune Cake

2011-09-23T12:21:00.000-07:00

Growing up, we had a few prune trees around the place.

I have since come to realize that they are called Italian Prune Plums, and often used to make the dried prunes that we all know and love (?). When most people think "prune" they think of a shriveled up dried fruit that old people eat. :) Really, a dried prune is a dehydrated (mostly) plum. At least as far as I know. And as many of you already know, that's not all too far.

Back to our prune trees on the Parker Estate: we used to eat prunes right off the tree and loved them! That type of plum is so sweet and tart and yummy. After moving away from home, I sort of forgot about them, until a few years ago when we visited down there and realized that the trees had started bearing fruit again after several prunings that left them barren for some time. We brought a couple flats home with us, and enjoyed them while we had them. I didn't preserve any that time, but the next year, Costco had them! I was so excited. It's almost become a tradition to get some whenever they're in season. And it's a *short* season.

These days, the old prune trees back at home are all gone. So whenever Costco carries these prune plums, I grab at least one container for us to eat. This year, for whatever reason, I decided to see if I could make something out of them.

Enter, the prune cake recipe. Yeah. The recipe. This is why you're here, right? The recipe.

I found this recipe online somewhere and modified a bit. Some call it Prune Coffee Cake, some call it Plum Kuchen (a German coffee cake). If you want to drink coffee with it, knock yourself out. I just call it Italian Prune Cake. And sometimes I drink coffee with it.

If you don't have Italian Prunes, then just use some other plums. Whatever works!

Here's what you need:

Cake:
1/2 C butter (one stick)
1 C sugar (I used raw sugar)
2 large eggs
1 C flour (I used wheat pastry flour)
1 tsp baking powder
6 or 7 Italian prunes, pitted and quartered (or more to your liking)
1 Tbsp lemon or lime juice

Topping:
1-1/2 Tbsp Sugar (again I used raw sugar)
1/4 tsp Cinnamon (or just make up some general cinnamon sugar, to your taste)

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a 9-inch springform pan.

Cream together the butter and sugar until well blended. Beat in eggs, followed by flour and baking powder. Beat to mix will and spread into the prepared pan (it's a thick batter). Place plum quarters on top of the batter, close together in circles, covering the batter. Make designs if you want! Sprinkle with lemon juice.

Mix up the cinnamon sugar topping and sprinkle over the top of the plums and batter. Bake on center rack of oven for one hour or until a cake tester or toothpick comes out clean and the top of the cake is golden brown.

Serve warm or cool, preferably with home made sweetened whipped cream (see recipe below).

This is a super yummy cake! The prunes bake down and combine into the batter and are nice and sweet but then you also have the slight tartness of the skin with it -- this is so good. I never thought it would be, but was delightfully surprised.

Here's what the cake looked like before I put it in the oven. I used about 6 prunes on this cake and made little flower patterns. But the last one I made I used 7 or maybe even 8 and put the prunes on in a circular fashion, just around the perimeter and then made circles inside of that big one. I wanted to put on as many as would fit, because when these are cooked into the cake, they are *so* good!

Here's what it looked like after I baked it -- but also after we dug into it. I sort-of forgot to take a shot of what it looked like right out of the oven. So just pretend all the pieces are there.

Since making this recipe twice now, I've frozen a bunch of prunes so that I can make this cake whever I want until they are in season again. (Or until I run out of prunes...)

Hope you have a chance to enjoy this cake! If not, come over to my house and I'll make you some.

:-)

p.s. Here is the whipped cream recipe:

Whipped Cream:
1 C heavy whipping cream
1/4 C powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine ingredients in a cold mixing bowl (or blender).
Mix until blended and peaks form.
If you prefer unsweetened whipped cream, just whip the cream by itself, or don't add as much sugar. It's up to you to make it how you like it!

Vinyl Cupcake

2011-09-23T11:32:00.000-07:00

Emma and I went yard sale-ing a few weekends ago, and found this shelf for one dollar. It had a really ugly spot on top, but we are all about fixing things to suit our fancy here in Montgummibear land.

So when she was at school the other day, I cut out this super cute cupcake and put it on the top of the shelf so the ugly spot was covered up! It turned out beautifully.

I used my Gypsy (Gypsy Wanderings cartridge) to create the cupcake to the correct size, and used my Cricut to cut the pieces out in different colors of vinyl.

Here it is!

Before (very ugly, no?):

After (super cute!):

Love!!

Jewelry Display

2011-09-23T11:26:00.001-07:00

I put this jewelry holder up last weekend. It's a towel bar and S-hook shower hooks. It's so super easy and so elegant. I love this!

My grandmother gave me a little jewelry holder (pictured below) that I've been using for a long time, but this way I can put each necklace on a separate hook. I'm still using the one she gave me, but now just for bracelets and some of my very cool vintage pins that used to belong to my mother and grandmothers.

The closeup of my newly acquired very-cool-jewelry-holder, looks just like the picture I pinned to my Pinterest board. :)

Here's the whole thing. So pretty!

A closeup of the one my grandma gave me a long time ago - super cute!

And this is what it looks like on my wall. It's not centered, because the small one on top is where it was before but the new one wouldn't fit if it was centered. So I don't care. Hee! I absolutely love this. I would have done it sooner, but it took me a little while to find S-hooks shaped shower curtain hooks.

I'm so glad I did!

Homemade "Lawry's" Seasoning Salt

2011-09-19T20:42:00.003-07:00

I've been making my seasoning salt from scratch lately. I've mainly switched my kitchen to unrefined sea salt, which is way better for your body than regular table salt. There are lots of reasons, which I will address at the bottom of this post. :) First, here's the recipe.

Homemade "Lawry's" seasoning salt

(this recipe times 4 makes about enough to fit into a typical sized spice bottle)

2 Tbsp Unrefined sea salt

1 tsp Sugar

1 tsp paprika

1/4 tsp Turmeric

1/4 tsp Onion powder

1/4 tsp Garlic powder

1/4 tsp Cornstarch

1 pinch Cinnamon

Combine all ingredients into a small bowl and mix well.

When I make this I put everything into a pint jar with a lid and shake.

Pour the blend into a spice jar for storage.

I've been making this recipe for months now, and my family loves it. Lawry's was a staple in my kitchen, and this is a great replacement. We even think it tastes better than the stuff you buy in the store! Now *that's* grrrrrreat!

Ok, now here's my soap box about salt. I guess you could call this my "salt box". :)

Salt is not a bad thing. In fact, our bodies need salt. It's the way God made us. The problem is, the refined salt that we usually use on our tables has chemical anti-caking agents and it no longer has the trace minerals that unrefined salt has. For these and other reasons, refined salt prevents the human body's ability to regulate hydration. We are led to think that salt is the bad guy - which is only partly true. *Refined* salt *is* a bad guy.

But the good guy is just around the corner. Unrefined salt has no chemicals, contains naturally occurring essential trace minerals, and our bodies recognize this salt as something it's designed to use. Unrefined sea salt, Himalayan salt, Celtic Sea Salt, are all good salts. Unfortunately, much of the "sea salt" you see in stores is still refined, unless the package is labeled as "unrefined". This is also true for Kosher salt! It still has anti-caking agents. I don't want that in my salt, as much as I enjoy Kosher salt. And I don't really care if my salt cakes up a little bit in the shaker or the salt crock. It doesn't bother me at all, actually. Especially when I know that it's better for me.

I purchase mainly Celtic Sea Salt, (www.celticseasalt.com) which you can get from their site or on Amazon. Many times it's cheaper on Amazon. I usually buy the finer-ground salt for table use, and then the coarse gray salt for use in cooking where I have used Kosher salt in the past. Another good one is Redmond Real Salt. I find that has some fine grit in it, which we don't like as well for eating, but I do like to use it when I'm using it for veggie soaks or something when I have to use salt and then rinse (like when preparing eggplant). I can find that one in my local grocery store and I think it's a bit less expensive than the other kind. But it's still good stuff to be using on my food. With all of these unrefined salts, I know I'm feeding my family good whole-food seasoning instead of chemicals.

As a bonus, I don't worry about salting my food or my dishes when cooking!! Of course you should always use salt in moderation (as with everything in life). But this is a way healthier alternative to the "pretty", "profit-making", "easy-pouring" refined salt that I once simply thought was the *only* alternative. It's not.

And there you have my salt rant. It's over now. There's lots of info on the internet about salt and the benefits of unrefined salt. Don't take my word for it. Have a look!

Try it, and you won't feel guilty when salting your food.

Zucchini Bread

2011-08-26T22:37:00.004-07:00

So, I've had a bountiful harvest of fruits and vegetables this summer due to our CSA - Community Supported Agriculture - box of goodies each week. We've gotten to try many new things, some good and some not-so-good.

This week I got 3 round zucchini squash-y things. They basically looked on the outside like typical green zucchini, but they were round instead. As it turns out, they look pretty much like zucchini on the inside too. I didn't know how I wanted to use them so I obviously turned to Pioneer Woman's website for ideas. I love her. If I lived by her or if she lived by me we would most certainly be very good friends.

I first searched her site, and thought about trying the zucchini cakes that came up when I searched for zucchini, but really had bread in mind so I turned to her Tasty Kitchen website and found this recipe. It's not one she personally posted, but it looked good, and with a title of "The Best Zucchini Bread EVER!", how could I pass it up?!?

So here's a link to the recipe. It's filled with yummy goodness and a lot of cinnamon, which, for picky eaters, hides the look of the zucchini quite well. It tastes great. My family liked it, which means it's a keeper.

The only thing I will do differently next time is to split one recipe up into two loaf pans. I think it will cook better and be less dense. My loaves were huge (almost ran over the pan) and I don't think they cooked as well as they could have if they weren't as full. Of course I will want to watch the cooking time if the pan isn't as full. A little kitchen logic there for ya.

When you make this recipe, don't forget the tall jar of iced tea. It's just a necessary part of life.

Who doesn't like a nice closeup?

Give this one a try! It's yummy!

Don't be impressed...

2011-08-03T23:05:00.002-07:00

Today, I made a mermaid.

I'll bet you're impressed. Don't be.

My girls have been watching a tv show on Netflix about girls who turn into mermaids whenever they get wet. They've watched all 3 seasons of the show now, and slightly obsessed with mermaids. As a result, they want to swim like mermaids, dress like mermaids, sing the theme song about being a mermaid...you get the idea. They even looked up on YouTube how to make a mermaid costume, complete with mono-fin flipper. I draw the line there. It's just not on my bucket list.

So I compromised. It's how I roll.

Emma cut out a little mermaid doll and I sewed it up for her. It's not very good, it's a feeble attempt at sewing up a made-up-as-you-go pattern, but it works.

She had some old shirts that weren't even really yard-sale worthy, so I told her she could keep them for scraps. She pulled out some scraps and cut them up into mermaid pieces. I sewed, she stuffed, she made hair, and voilà! A mermaid. Ok. It wasn't really that easy. I'm making it sound easy. It wasn't. Just trust me on this one.

She actually cut out three tails, knowing full well that I had the stellar seamstress-ing skills to make all 3 dolls. But after sewing up the tails, then finally sewing up the first doll, I told her there was no way [anywhere] that I was going to sew up two more. At least not at *that* size. Those arms? They're very tiny. I actually sewed them *and* managed to get them turned right-side-out. I'm sure larger mermaid pieces will be visiting my dining room soon, hoping to be pieced together to form a larger and more easier-to-work-with doll. In fact, maybe I'll just teach her how to use the machine and let her go to work on a larger version. (Yeah, that's the ticket...)

So, here is the mermaid. It turned out pretty cute. She cut out the pieces (you can see a few marks where her outlines were), she made the hair, and I sewed it all up. There, I made it sound easy again. I'm telling you...never mind. Just take my word for it.

Here's Emma with her new little friend:

Behold, a "mer-made-up-as-you-go".

Sewing

2011-08-02T17:00:00.000-07:00

I finally like sewing again.

Here's why.

First, the history: my mom sewed almost all of my clothes when I was young. She even made my prom dresses and my wedding dress. And my bridesmaids' dresses. And I could go on and on.

But I won't. {You're welcome}

I learned how to sew, but since my mom always did the sewing, I never really had to. Earlier this year I finally got rid of an old machine that wasn't working well (and helped create a disdain for anything that had to do with using that machine) and replaced it with a new machine from Costco. I got a great deal too since a), it was at Costco and 2), it was the "floor model", so I got a discount on top of the already good price.

Last weekend I found this sewing table - complete with old (early 60's?) Singer sewing machine. I haven't tried that machine yet, but I was told it works. So I cleaned the table up yesterday and gave it a light coating of Old English, and it looks pretty good. It really needs to be refinished - the stain was chipping off here and there as I was cleaning it. But it will work for now.

I added my knobs to the drawers for my own personal touch, and put my new machine on top. I sewed some little mermaid tail toys for my girls this afternoon and flipped out the top flap of the table on the right side for more table space - it worked out really well. I can't put my machine on top of the existing one when I flip out the left side of the table - it won't fit in the space unless I put some other piece of wood over the top of it. But the way it is for now worked like a charm. I'll most likely be keeping this around for a while.

I think it turned out pretty nicely for ten bucks. And the machine looks in good shape to boot -- I'll be trying it out later and let you know how it goes.

What shall I sew next?

Antiques

2011-07-20T18:15:00.002-07:00

I love yard sales. I love to find great deals on stuff that other people want to offload. As a result I sometimes end up with my own "offloads" so I also enjoy spending time with my dear friends having our own yard sale once or twice a year.

A few weeks ago I went out with one of my friends and we both found antique glass door cabinets, they were in a driveway back to back. She looked at one, I was drawn to the other. It was so much fun to find these things!!

So here's mine. It goes great in my entry way. I put my fun kitchen knobs on it instead of the brass-y ones that were on it, and it's perfect.

Enjoy.
I know I do, every time I walk by.

Glorious.

Fun Art

2011-07-07T16:52:00.000-07:00

These pictures have been sitting in the basket in the cupboard above my computer desk for months. I've been meaning to somehow get them into a format in which I could keep them for posterity. Yesterday I finally took pictures of them so that I can post them (as I have with past notes and artwork) so I will hopefully always be able to go back and view them whenever I want. I love that I can post things like this on my blog and be able to access them later (as well as sharing the fun things of my life with whomever wants to see them).

So here are a bunch of pictures Rachel drew - sometime this year, but she doesn't remember exactly when.

Elegant Birthday Desserts

2011-05-30T16:45:00.005-07:00

Emma's rainbow birthday cake was the dessert for her "friend" birthday party on Friday night, but she wanted another dessert for the "family" birthday party on Saturday.

So she was going to have ice cream cake - and we had been looking at several different recipes. But then we went to the orthodontist and saw a Martha Stewart Living magazine - and found this dessert, so we decided on this instead. Here's magazine picture - I snapped a picture in the orthodontist's office so we would have a quick reference.

This is what we saw in the magazine. I did *not* make this.

It is super easy and makes a really elegant-looking dessert. It's also really super yummy.

You'll just need a quart of ice cream that you get in a box - whatever flavor you want. Emma opted for one Vanilla and one Neapolitan.

We got some dark chocolate slabs from the bulk food section at WinCo, and I also scooped out some of the little broken pieces to use for sprinkling on the top and around the edges of the finished "cake".

So here are the steps:

First, cut the carton off the ice cream, place it on serving platter, and refreeze until it hardens. Then pour some slightly cooled melted semisweet chocolate over the top, and let it drip down the sides. Now is a great time to scatter some of the chunky bits of chocolate on the top and around the edges of the bottom of the ice cream. Then you will want to refreeze once more so it hardens nicely.

That's it! You have a very elegant looking dessert that was super easy to make.

Neapolitan

Vanilla

I was really impressed at how amazing these desserts looked.

Try this sometime! It's super easy and really yummy.

Rainbow Birthday Cake

2011-05-30T16:01:00.007-07:00

Emma turned 12 on May 18. I am now the proud parent of a 12 year old and it's really quite nice to have an "almost" teenager. I don't buy into the "oh no, you have a teenager!" mentality. It simply doesn't have to be "that way". That's just about all I'm going to say about that. :-)

Emma decided she wanted to copy a birthday cake out of her American Girl magazine from several years ago (they really are worth keeping around!). So of course, since I let them both choose what dessert(s) they want for their birthday parties, I agreed to make it for her.

It's really pretty simple, but just takes a bit of time. If I were you, I'd try it sometime. It looks daunting but if you are patient, it will work out. Frosting is a layer-cake-baker's friend, let me tell you.

So here's what you do!

Mix up a plain white cake mix, out of a box - you can make it from scratch if you want to, but it's a bit easier sometimes to just use the box.

After mixing up the cake, split up the batter into 4 even amounts. I used my Pampered Chef 2-cup prep bowls - I'm so glad I got a couple sets of these before I stopped selling PC. Super love these bowls.

You'll color the batter in each bowl a different color - the recipe in the magazine said to use a couple teaspoons of flavored Jello in different colors, but instead of wasting Jello, I just used food coloring. Mr. (Ms.?) Wilton is also a baker's friend. I love him (her?).


Wilton is my friend...

Make the 4 different colors of batter, and then bake each in a well-floured pan. I was reminded that well-floured means exactly that...well-floured. I have this great baking spray, that has flour already in it. I did not realize this until after the first two cakes were baked and they did not come out of the pans very well. I tried to spray them and then flour them - when all I had to do was liberally spray each pan with only the spray that contained flour. This flour spray works great. And, I'll say it again. Frosting is my friend when baking layer cakes. You'd never know that the first two layers came out terribly. I froze them on the rack for a bit first before wrapping them in saran wrap.

These pans were *not* floured nearly well enough. I shouldn't have used flour, just the flour-spray.

Red and Orange cakes

First two cakes didn't come out real well...

Love my prep bowls!!

The second two came out perfectly after cooling for a few minutes.

After all 4 cakes are baked and cooled, you'll want to freeze them. Just wrap them up in saran wrap and let them freeze a while. I baked mine on Thursday and then assembled the cake on Friday. But if you only have a few hours that will do. Cakes are usually easier to frost when frozen - less crumbs. Also, once they are frosted and then thaw, they're nice and moist on the inside. We'll just call that a perk.

Next it's time to make the frosting. The recipe calls for cans of frosting, but I prefer to make my own. I made a buttercream frosting, and I made a lot since I wasn't sure how much I'd need to "fix" my layers that didn't bake well. Plus, with a layer cake, sometimes the layers aren't exactly perfectly sized, so you need some more frosting sometimes to make the cake look even.

After the frosting is made, you'll want to split it up into 3 portions - leave some white for the clouds, make some yellow for in between the layers, and make some blue for the outside of the cake. I rinsed out one of my 2-cup prep bowls and used it again for the yellow frosting. Have I mentioned how much I love these bowls? I also used my small batter bowl for the blue, since I need more blue than yellow.

Mixing up the blue sky frosting

Not quite bright enough...let's add more color...

Perfect.

Beautiful! Frosting is fun.

Now it's time to frost the cake.

Place your bottom layer on your cake serving plate. I got this cute little cake pedestal the last time I went to IKEA. I used to have a cake plate but didn't have room in my old kitchen for it. Now that I have room I decided it was time to have my cake plate again. Anyway, I also put a dab of frosting under that first layer, so when I frosted the cake it wouldn't slide all around. I put a little cloth-y thing under my pedestal so that I could turn it around easily and also to make sure I didn't scratch up my countertop. It's way easier to turn the cake around for frosting all around. You can also put your plate on a lazy susan if you want - I've done that before and it works great.

Then you'll frost the top (only) of the bottom layer with yellow frosting.

Then the next layer,

And so on.

You'll only need enough yellow frosting for the 3 bottom layers, since the top layer will be frosted with blue.

Next you'll frost the rest of the cake! It can be messy, but put a big glob on and start spreading. Do the top first, then the sides, then you'll smooth out the top again. You can glob some into the uneven places so the cake will look nice and even and smooth. You'd never know that my two bottom layers didn't turn out of the pans very nicely.

After the frosting is done, you can clean up the serving plate with paper towels (or whatever tool you want to use). Next comes the clouds - just spread some blobs of white frosting so that they look like clouds. I wasn't sure how mine would turn out, but I think they ended up looking fairly good. Any shape of clouds will do.

Birthday Girl

Silly Birthday Girl.

My example

That's it. I left the cover off of the cake pedestal until after we cut the cake, since it would have touched the top layer and messed up my clouds. When we cut the cake to serve it, it was super moist and yummy. Layer cakes are slightly time-consuming, but are really simple to put together, so don't let yourself be overwhelmed by the prospect.

Emma's other dessert (for Saturday's family birthday party) was really fun, elegant-looking, and easy to make too...stay tuned for that one.

Yum!

No Soliciting Please.

2011-03-19T01:11:00.002-07:00

Not sure what “no soliciting” means?

Let me put it another way:

If I don’t know you, please don’t come to my door asking me for anything, sharing any information with me, offering me free *anything*, urging me to vote for your cause, or requesting my opinion. Additionally, please don’t come to my door trying to sell me anything (and just so you know, “soliciting” does not necessarily mean you’re selling something).

On the other hand, if I know you, please, by all means, come over, chat, tell me about your day, or offer me the option to purchase some Girl Scout cookies. I’ll even invite you in. I enjoy having people over. I don’t want any of my friends to get the wrong idea. If I actually know you, you’re always welcome. Seriously. I'm not trying to be rude. Honest.

So back to this sign by my front doorbell. Is it still not clear to you? Would you still like an official definition?

Definition of Soliciting:

~to make a request, application, or entreaty to (a person for business, support, etc)

~to urge (as one's cause) strongly

~to try to obtain by usually urgent requests or pleas (solicited donations)

So, “no soliciting” means do *not* do any of the above things.

Kindly do not knock on my door asking me to buy anything, requesting me to sign anything, or seeking to obtain me as a customer for anything. If I want to buy, sign, or be a customer, I will do so of my own choosing, when I want to do it. Not because some stranger knocks on my door.

Still want to argue with me by telling me that “it’s ok, I’m not asking for money” or "I'm not selling anything"? On the contrary, it’s not ok, whether or *not* you’re asking for money. If I don’t know you and you are trying to talk me into *anything*, you are ‘making a request’, or ‘urging strongly’, or 'trying to obtain' something from me. Even if it’s just using up 5 minutes of my time.

Do not try to tell me that I have my terminology wrong by saying “oh, you mean peddling”.

Definition of Peddling:

~to travel about selling wares.

~the act of selling goods for a living

So - Yep. No peddling either. But peddling falls under the umbrella of soliciting – you’re asking for something. You are walking up to a house of someone that you don’t know, and you’re trying to talk them into buying, listening, letting you come in and clean a carpet, or to install a ‘free’ security system (just to name a few).

All I am asking is that you pass by my house. I don’t want any. Free or not. No, thank you.

It’s really that simple.

If I happen to answer the door (which I should apparently think twice about doing), and you start talking, and I listen for a minute (looking for a place to interject) so that I don't rudely interrupt, and then I ask you kindly to take note of my sign and that I do not accept solicitors at my home, do *NOT* argue with me. If you argue with me, you are immediately considered hostile and you will be treated as such. I will not tolerate someone standing in my doorway telling me that I am in the wrong by asking them not to continue with their requests because I am not interested.

One more thing. I’m sorry to say, my front porch light is currently out. So if you come at night, which you shouldn’t be doing anyway, I will give you the benefit of the doubt and just tell you that I don’t accept soliciting, and kindly ask you to leave the premises.

But if you come in broad daylight when my sign is clearly visible, tell me that I am in the wrong when I show you that I have a sign that asks you not to offer me *anything*, free or not, and then you stand at *my* doorstep and argue with me about the definition of the sign, then who’s really wrong?

Yeah. I thought so.

Amen.

Math

2011-03-19T00:50:00.001-07:00

Rachel created a math problem for my dad, see below. Note the date. She was in 3rd grade, this was the day after her 8th birthday. She created this problem for him and had him fill out the paper with the answers.

Heard Somewhere

2011-02-16T10:36:00.001-08:00

Not sure where I heard it but I liked it.

"God is never what I expect but always what I need."

Too true.

The Bottom Line

2011-02-03T16:32:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks ago, I had a super-great Wednesday.

(I have every Wednesday off, and have since I started up working again, because the elementary schools are out early. It's a nice week day off so I can run errands or whatever else I need to do during the week. It's nice!)

This was a Wednesday that I was home. I spent the day hanging out in the clothes I slept in (until 5:00 when I went up and got dressed so I could make dinner and go to AWANA/Small Group). I did tons of laundry (and found some missing socks along the way), cleaned up a bit, did a few things here and there. But I was *home*.

I had to get Emma early (10:45 secondary early release - kinda dumb, but means I had more time with her that day which was pretty cool), and we came back home and hung out - not necessarily together the whole time, but together in the house. Nice.

I thoroughly enjoyed that I didn't have to leave the house for any errands, just to get the trolls to and from school (with a quick trip through the bank drive through after getting Rachel from school from her early release day). Easy. I did a little project (my missing sock wall) that day, I enjoyed my newly-rearranged family room, which was finally clean of trolls' sh... cr... stu... um ... (*ahem*) belongings.

My point here? It was nice to be home and do my "real" job here. I don't want to sound ungrateful for anything, because I do truly believe that the job I have (the "other" job) was from God, and that I'm honoring Him by honoring my husband's wishes (to work at a job that helps fund the savings account). But it's so nice when I don't have to worry about that job. I didn't go in on Monday, since there wasn't tons of work, and Tuesday was MOPS, and Wednesday is always a day off. How awesome that I got those days at home this week. Awesome because God made it so for me.

Identity. I think I needed some time this week to do things here and realize that I am valuable for what I do, whether here or there or anywhere, but that my actual identity isn't *in* my job here or there or anywhere. My true identity is in Christ. Doesn't matter whether I have a clean house or do all the laundry. That stuff is nice, but it's not my identity. If I have another job, that's not it either. My identity is in Christ and that's the bottom line.

Lies. I think sometimes I get caught up in the idea (lie) that I'm not doing what I often think I *should* be doing (being a home-only-mom) because I feel like I don't get enough done here. I think that's because I'm believing lies and putting my identity in something other than Christ. Yes, I'm a homemaker, wife, mother. But my actual identity (and priority) is being a child of God, not a homemaker or wife or mother. Those things are secondary to being His child. So when I make sure my identity is in the right place, the rest follows suit. My priorities have to be right or else *I'm* not right. :)

Obedience. Whether or not I think I should or should not have a job outside my home, the fact remains that I do. The fact remains that God gave me that job at a time when it was absolutely necessary. The fact remains that I obey God by honoring and respecting my husband, who believes it wise that I continue in that job so that I am helping support our family *with* him.

Priorities. I'm first God's child; then a wife; then a mother. Then a homemaker, then a friend...the list goes on. It's so important to realize those priorities in life. Do I want my kids to remember that we had an "always clean house", or that all the laundry was always done, or that everything was always in place? No. I want them to remember that we enjoyed spending time together. There is definitely a time for chores and work, but we have to leave room for fun and teaching and learning together also. I may not be a "homeschool" mom, but I am still my kids' (first) teacher. God has told me that it's my job to teach them His ways - so I better have my priorities straight.

Bottom line: Don't believe the lies. Obey God's commands. Get your priorities straight.

Emma's note

2011-02-03T15:53:00.001-08:00

Again another note I found in my bible that is worth saving in the archives. This was one Emma wrote to me one morning when my sister Tanya was at church with us.
I can't remember why, but we kept saying "top-o-the morning" to each other when she was here so it was fitting. I love the cute little sun yawning.

Yawn!

Emma's picture

2011-02-03T14:07:00.002-08:00

This picture from my bible comes to you compliments of Emma, circa probably 2006. It had to be when Rachel still had her looooong curls as you can see in the picture, so she was probably almost 5. I have to look back at pictures to remember when it was that I had to cut off all those beautiful baby curls.

For reference, here's a family picture from September '06. I'm pretty sure this must have been about when she drew this. Look at the resemblance!

Those were the days.

Rachel's note

2011-02-03T13:40:00.001-08:00

I sat down by the fireplace today to read, and found this note in my bible, on the back of a scribble card.
Rachel wrote this probably when she was about 5. I'm just guessing, but she was writing her name before she turned 4, so there's a good chance this was before she turned 5.

Precious.

Prodigal Socks

2011-01-12T15:10:00.003-08:00

I am convinced (and have been for several years now) that there is a planet in a far-away solar system that consists entirely of unmatched socks.

I know there are several theories of where these socks actually go - maybe a dryer or washer "eats" them, or maybe static cling makes a sock stick to the insides of pants or long sleeved t shirts. Whatever *really* happens to some of them I don't know (except for my above theory), but we occasionally do find one. Sometimes in the strangest place, and sometimes we even find one where it should be - unmatched - in the sock drawer. The poor thing was just a bit misguided. Maybe even a rebel.

Regardless of where they are or how rebellious they might be, I have always had a sock basket sitting on the top of the dryer, stuffed with socks waiting for that poor missing mate. It's dark and stuffy in there, and they just hang out in the dark until one of the mates is found. When that happens, the awaiting socks rejoice, almost like a 'prodigal son' homecoming. "Our dear sock has returned, let us rejoice! Go and kill the fattened dust bunny!"

Even though I know from past experience that the odds of finding a missing sock are heightened exponentially whenever the mate is thrown away, I still keep them because I just know that I'll throw one sock away, then the missing one will show up, then I'll have to throw *that one* away also, which is just a waste of socks. So I hang on to them. and on. and on.

Frankly, I'm tired of the sock basket, so I've come up with another solution. I've created a way for those socks to remain in the light of day, not stuffed in a basket so that we forget who they are. They now hang on a little clothesline on the laundry room wall, for all to see and be reminded that there are, in fact, poor socks that are missing their mates. It's kind of like a "missing persons" wall. Instead of posters and milk cartons, the look-alikes hang on a line and wait for their mate to show up. Eventually, the prodigal socks return. Winter comes, the long-sleeve shirts are worn, and a sock is found. Boots are worn and socks are found. An occasional search of the sock drawer or under a bed, and another missing sock is found. Just today, I used a coat hanger to reach under the dryer, and I found one (The "Thursday" sock shown in the picture below)!! There *was* much rejoicing.

Below is a picture of my "missing sock" wall. I did my "vinyl" thing and hung up a little clothes line for them, complete with some ladybugs here and there. Pretty cute, if I do say so myself. And not to mention fun to use some creative juices that haven't been flowing all that much lately.

Here's hoping that by having these socks out in the open, it will remind the (sometimes rebellious) missing socks that it's ok to "come home" and they will still be loved, even though they were missing.

Here's the location of the Missing Sock wall...

...and a closeup of the sweet little socks awaiting their missing matches.

Come home, prodigal socks...come home.

Book quote

2011-01-12T14:30:00.001-08:00

Here's a good quote from a book called "Teach Them Diligently" by Lou Priolo (pg 21).

Christians are not to use what they learn for their own glory and personal benefit, but rather for God's glory and the benefit of others.

I haven't finished this book yet, but am slowly working on it. It's a very good book, and I hope to become a better "shepherd" and "teacher" to my children about how to live for God's glory. After all, the "chief end of man" is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. How can we do that if we do not know His ways?

Lord, give me faith and understanding so that I may pass it on to my children, your gifts to me.

Testing "Texting"

2010-12-31T12:05:00.005-08:00

Testing - I have never created a blog post via text message. This could be a great way to save those little things that I want to remember to share with friends or save for posterity. We'll see how it goes!

I don't really have anything special to share other than simply to thank God for simple pleasures (in no particular order), such as:

-a week off
-video games that I usually would not take the time to play unless I had a week off
-great books that I might not read unless I had a week off
-a warm fireplace
-pizza, mochas, and other tasty foods
-my fabulous family

All of these pleasures made possible by my loving heavenly Father who gives all good things.

'ts good.

Cousins

2010-12-09T21:34:00.003-08:00

Brian's brother Jason and his wife Amy came over tonight. We did a photo shoot tonight with the 4 cousins - Emma, Rachel, Alec, and Brooklyn.

There are several posted, but these were the best and funnest pictures!!

Life is good.

I'm dreaming of a white...Thanksgiving?

2010-12-01T17:44:00.001-08:00

Yes, that's right. Thanksgiving was white this year. The entire week of Thanksgiving. The kids were on an early release schedule for school conferences already, so on Monday when a 2-hour delay was called by the school district, I called it a snow day. Then Tuesday and Wednesday were also canceled, so we had the entire week off. Brian even had Tuesday off since his work was canceled that day because of the snow.

Thursday was great, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving at Brian's aunt and uncle's house, and all his family was there on his mom's side - it was a great time of food and conversation, and all the kids played great together.

Some pictures of our snow during the week and our festivities.

Marian and Nathan

Brian's dad Gary and Me

Jason with Brooklyn and Alec

Brian's mom Judy and Me

Emma, Brian, Lauren

Sharon, Amy, Nathan, and the back of Alec

Lauren and Chris

Lauren and Nathan

Brooklyn and Emma

All the little cousins

Rachel, Emma, Brooklyn, Alec

All the little cousins again

Judy and Lauren and Brooklyn

Nathan with his Grampa, Brian's uncle Peter

Friday we got the tree up and decorated

Saturday was spent hanging out in the family room about like this. Super great day.

All in all, the best Thanksgiving week *ever* in my opinion.

God is good.

Whitman Mission Field Trip

2010-10-21T22:33:00.003-07:00

I went on a field trip with Rachel on Tuesday. We had a fantastic time. I was reminded of what it's like to ride a school bus - something I hadn't done in several years. We had the most beautiful weather - you'll see below some of the amazing views we got to see throughout the day. AMAZING!!

I will just post some pictures - not an awful lot of explanation is necessary, although I may add in some tidbits here and there. As it turns out, there are quite a few pictures, so I hope it doesn't take forever to load the page. Sorry. But there are so many good ones!!

This is on the way there:

And now the walking tour begins:

A portion of the real Oregon Trail:

And the covered wagon replica:

Next we took a break and ate our lunches.
Then we all went inside and watched a film about the Whitmans and their story:

On to the Museum:

And now we're finished and about to get back on the bus...

...but first, a group picture!

Now back to the bus...

And these were taken on the way home.

God gave us such a beautiful day for this field trip.

Music Class

2010-10-15T12:28:00.001-07:00

"That's a big niece."

What a 2nd grade boy said about Emma when she got up to take a turn in the game in Tasha's music class.

This weekend we are visiting my sister Tasha in Portland.
Today we went to school with her and are sitting in on all her music classes. It's fun to see her teach, and the girls have gotten to play some games with the kids too. They have played several different games now with several different age groups.

The 2nd grade class was especially cute today. They sat in a circle, and had some instruments in the middle of the circle. All but one student would close their eyes, while one student in the center played an instrument, then sat back in their place in the circle. The other students would then try to guess what instrument was played. A great game to develop listening skills!

When it was Emma's turn to play an instrument, she got up off the floor to the center of the circle. That's when the boy said she was a big niece. Tasha went on to explain that she was a 6th grader, so it was normal for her to be that much bigger than he was. Of course Tasha and I exchanged glances and smiles, and I proceeded to write it down - because you just have to write these things down!

Fun times.

Easy Playdough

2010-10-08T23:17:00.002-07:00

I made up a batch of playdough for the trolls, they're loving it. It's been a long time since we've even had playdough in the house - but even big kids like it. So I thought I would share this easy recipe. Make up a batch, and store it in a ziploc bag.

No Cook Playdough

Ingredients:
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Salt
1 Tbsp Oil
1 Cup Water (or less)
Food coloring

Directions:
Mix the flour and salt in a bowl; stir to combine.
Add the oil, stir again.
Mix the food coloring into the water; stir.
Add the water gradually until mixed; you probably won't need the entire cup.

After it's all mixed together, take it out of the bowl and knead until it's playdough-y. If you added too much water, all you have to do is add a little more flour until it's the "right" consistency.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

This is an easy recipe to double or cut in half; make as much as you need. It's super easy and super cheap.

Enjoy!

Oven baked rice

2010-10-05T23:39:00.014-07:00

I've made the switch to brown rice; it's so much better for you. The only problem (if you want to call it that) is that it takes a while to cook compared to traditional white rice. So I've been looking around for recipes to find different ways to cook it. I have a tendency to either burn things or boil things over when cooking on the stove top especially. So crock pot and oven are great alternatives. Last week I made a pork chops and rice recipe in the crock pot, it was yummy. But the rice was - well - rice-y. You know, how it kind of sticks together sometimes? I love it when my rice isn't gummy and sticky. Even though it tastes great, it's nice sometimes to have it not stick together.

I found a different way to cook it tonight. It sounded strange to me at first, but this recipe for oven baked rice is so super yummy. It takes a good 50 minutes or more to cook brown rice, so why not put it in the oven and forget about it? (Until the timer rings, of course. Don't forget to set the timer.)

Usually when I try a recipe I try to follow the recipe exactly. The only changes I made were the pan (I used stoneware, my square baker, although I think my deep covered baker will also work great). Also I used light gray Celtic sea salt instead of Kosher salt. I boiled water in my tea kettle, then just measured the rice, butter, and salt into the stone - why mix it in another pan if I don't have to? I just poured the measured amount of water into the stone, and stirred until the butter was melted.

This rice was fantastic. I also made up some stir fry veggies and chicken to eat with it.

This recipe came from Food Network.com.

Baked Brown Rice

*Cook Time: 1 hr 5 min
*Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients
* 1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
* 2 1/2 cups water
* 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Place the rice into an 8-inch square glass baking dish.

Bring the water, butter, and salt just to a boil in a kettle or covered saucepan. Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine, and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove cover and fluff the rice with a fork. Serve immediately.

Try it sometime! I'd love to hear how it turns out for you.

How do you cook *your* rice?

[Something I forgot to add when I posted this the first time is that I usually cook my rice in chicken broth, so it gives more flavor. So add some bouillon to the water and away you go!]

Trials

2010-10-03T15:36:00.013-07:00

I had a friend ask me a question today:

"Hey, I saw you tearing up while [a person in church] was talking about cancer, and I got a little concerned. Is everything ok?"

How sweet of them to ask. That's what friends are for. Well, it wasn't the cancer topic so much as one of the things he said about it. He referred us to an article he had read by John Piper. I will link to the article at the end of the post. But basically, the gist was how we look at our trials. Do we look at them as a blessing or a curse? Are they ways we can glorify God or are they "one more thing to complain about"? I guess I realized just how thankful I am to God for what I have, for the trials that He has brought me though, and for the ones I don't have to go through right now. However, I know that any trial could be thrust upon me at any given time. I'm so very thankful for God's grace in my life. I pray that when I face trials (the "small" daily ones and the large ones as well), I will fully put my entire trust in God to bring me through it. Complete dependency on Him.

After he talked about that idea, we sang a song that I love - In Christ Alone. Without fail, I always tear up when we sing

"No power of hell, no scheme of man... could ever pluck me from His hand..."

Because those two things are our battles here (in this life). Often it's not directly satan or the forces of evil on this earth, it's also the schemes of man. Those schemes probably could be attributed to satan, but we don't always need to give him all the credit - sin [or our sinful nature] gets credit enough. And the schemes of man are not always meant to be schemes, often they are meant with good intentions. Many people know full well what I mean. You've been hurt by people, sometimes intentional, but very many times not intentional. And no matter the intention, it still hurts and it's still hard to deal with. But God is our Ultimate Healer. He is able to reconcile relationships, to heal physical and emotional wounds, by the power of the blood of Christ. Praise the Lord!!

Anyway, back to the song, I can rarely sing that line - start that line - and be able to finish it. I guess I'm so grateful for God's hand of mercy that always saves me from those two things.

So here are the song lyrics and the link to the article that was mentioned today by two people. Which means to me that it's important enough for me to remember.

Hope it helps you to remember too.

Note: This article can have meaning for anyone; not just cancer victims. Replace "cancer" for whatever trial you are going through. God allows us these trials so that we will depend on *only* Him for our way through it. He alone is our help and our shield. (Psalm 33:20-22)

John Piper article: Don't waste your cancer

In Christ Alone

In Christ alone my hope is found
He is my light, my strength, my song
This Cornerstone, this solid ground
Firm through the fiercest drought and storm
What heights of love, what depths of peace
When fears are stilled, when strivings cease
My Comforter, my All in All
Here in the love of Christ I stand

In Christ alone, who took on flesh
Fullness of God in helpless babe
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones He came to save
'Till on that cross as Jesus died
The wrath of God was satisfied
For every sin on Him was laid
Here in the death of Christ I live

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost it's grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Brought with the precious blood of Christ

No guilt in life, no fear in death
This is the power of Christ in me
From life's first cry to final breath
Jesus commands my destiny
No power of hell, no scheme of man
Can ever pluck me from His hand
'Till He returns or calls me home
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand

Random New Post

2010-09-21T21:32:00.003-07:00

Well I haven't had many new posts lately, but it's not like people are breaking down my door to read my blog. I'm sure it's not on anyone's priority list. Which is fine. One of the main reasons I even have the blog is so that *I* will remember stuff later. Therefore, because these two things are written down on a piece of paper that's sitting around and keeps getting shuffled from pile to pile on the desk, in the cupboard, or anywhere else it can be shuffled, I will "blog" them and throw away the paper. A very good idea indeed, if I do say so myself.

So both of these quotes I heard from our Pastor, Jim, and I'm not sure where he got them so I will just leave it at that. {Update: I believe the first quote has been attributed to Emily Post, but researching on the internet is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're going to get.}

First; one that I would like to write in vinyl upstairs in the hallway so it's seen every day:

Kindness is to Do and Say the Kindest Thing in the Kindest Way.

A simple truth that we could *all* benefit from remembering *all* the time.

Second, this is something he said a couple weeks ago in his sermon on Sunday; again, I don't know if he just said it or if he quoted it or what. But it's good, and therefore worth writing down.

If you accept the Bible to be anything but the literal Word of God, then you have rejected it.

Again, a simple truth that just says it like it is. You either accept it or reject it.

Yep. That's all there is to it.

Rachel's quick reply

2010-05-25T16:01:00.002-07:00

Homework time:

Emma: Oh, I spelled snail wrong. I wrote s-n-a-l-e instead of s-n-a-i-l.

Me: Well, you're going to jail!

Emma: Darn.

Rachel: And that's not j-a-l-e.

Good one, Ra.

Disobedience is like smoking...

2010-05-11T22:10:00.004-07:00

I was talking with Emma tonight at bedtime (it seems that's the best "talking" time for some reason).
We were talking about how she doesn't have to be "that" kid - the "teenager" with attitude... she can be an adolescent young woman with a heart for God and a desire to do the right thing, not just have a desire to be cool or have the newest "stuff" or the coolest clothes or whatever the "thing" may be.

She was telling me that most of the time when she starts to have a disobedient or unhealthy attitude, and I tell her she needs to change her attitude (we even have a code word that sometimes just makes her laugh), she often does the typical "huff", and then after being alone for a minute, she said she feels guilty and realizes that I was right; she needed to change her attitude. We talked some more, and I asked her to let me know after she comes to that realization - telling me how she felt, asking forgiveness if necessary - so she can practice *now* being repentant towards God and whomever else she wronged. If she practices that now, then it will be easier in a year or two when she's actually a "teenager". [Ok, Soapbox...by the way, I can't stand that word - at least how it's used now. "Oh, you have *teenagers*? I'm so sorry..." or whatever it is people say. It's really kind of unfair to the kids when they're pretty much typecast into having an attitude problem. Kids don't *have* to be that way. (stepping off soapbox now)]

Anyway, after our little talk, she said the following (it's the basic idea, I am not good at remembering actual words):

Disobedience is like smoking.
When you smoke, you're putting bad stuff into your lungs and they turn black, and sometimes it's hard to stop doing it. People know it's bad for them, but they just can't stop.
Disobedience is something you do and it makes your heart turn black, and you know it's wrong but it's really hard to stop, even though you know it's not right.

How wise our young ones are, if only we take the time to listen to them.

[Thank you God for my babies...
may I be less selfish and more open to what they have to say.]

It's just an expression

2010-04-06T16:17:00.002-07:00

The little neighbor girl next door just rang the doorbell (she'll be 7 on Friday). Rachel opened the door and this conversation ensued:

Cailynn: Guess what? (I can only guess she is pointing to an empty spot in her mouth)
Rachel: You lost it?
Cailynn: No, it came out this morning. It's on my nightstand.
Rachel: Emma! Cailynn lost her tooth!

I love the English language.

Overheard in the girls' bathroom

2010-04-05T20:55:00.001-07:00

Emma was just taking a shower upstairs and Rachel often hangs out in there and talks to her while she showers. It's a sister thing.

Brian and I walked up the stairs and stopped when we got to the top, and heard the following - Emma telling Rachel about a girl at school. We were laughing so hard we didn't catch the rest of the conversation. I love to hear the things they talk about when they don't know who is listening in.

Here's what we heard:

"(Name of girl at school) says she's a Christian, but she says "Oh my God". Not that saying "Oh my God" makes you *not* a Christian, but still, it isn't good."

Be careful, little lips, what you say...

Sayings around the house

2010-04-05T18:12:00.004-07:00

Lately I've been a little bit "vinyl happy". I've put sayings all over the house. I put a couple up last year after we moved in to make the house feel a bit more like home, but over the past couple weeks I've gotten the Cricut out and cut more words to put up in more places around the house. If you stand still too long, I might label *you*. :-)

Here are some pictures of what I've done recently. It's not really anything that elaborate, but it's fun to decorate a little. I still have painting to do, and so I'll most likely have to re-do these vinyl sayings after the paint goes up, but it's ok.

To start, here are the ones I put up after moving in last year, in the entryway and on the fireplace.

I've always wanted to put this verse above my front door.

I actually started the latest "binge" of cutting vinyl when I decided to put these verses above the girls' beds. They love the reminder that God is always with them, especially at night when bad dreams come to call.

Rachel's room:

She chose the flourish, and put the little butterfly up herself.

And Emma's room:

She chose her flourishes too, but instead of making them pink like she asked (she has decorated her room in lots of pink and green), I did them in green like the words. Silly me.
Good thing she's an easy going gal. :)

I also made a cute little thing in their bathroom:

And here's my Laundry room. I love this one. Very true for me. I might have to make one for beside the hamper that says something to the effect of "you leave it inside-out, you get it back inside-out". :)

My latest creation is in red vinyl. I did the lettering and also cut a bunch of flourishes along with it, using up all the blank spaces of the square-ish piece of vinyl. So I have put a couple flourishes up in extra places. This is my craft desk area in our living room that doubles as a craft and music area.

And this last one is of little flourishes I put up around a picture in the little powder room in the entry. I had to take a picture from the side so the reflection of the light wouldn't show up.

It's been fun to decorate the house up. I have friends who want me to make sayings for them too - so I'm happy to oblige. It's a great use of my Cricut. I use it for scrapbook layouts and cards too, which I will have to start posting pictures of to share as well.

Family members be warned: if you sit around too long you might be next.

I love my sister

2010-02-15T22:42:00.004-08:00

I got this email from my sister Tanya tonight. She is the most fantastic, wonderful, beautiful, funny, entertaining, silly, absolutely cool next-to-youngest-sister in the world.

Here is the email I received tonight:

hi. can u please mail me a bunch or a little(if your a meanie) of your shortbread? PLEASE PLEASE?
oh yeah, i had 2 go 2 the doctor and he said i probably won't make it without shortbread from u in my regular diet.
so if u wanna be responsible for me keeling over dead before my 35th birthday, i donno how u would live with yourself.
ummmmmm....oh my work has a few new rules for employees.. we have to eat shortbread from you(only for me though) once daily at least, or we get fired. on the spot.
so if you wanna be responsible for me dying, and being unemployed, probably trying to jump of the bridge or something, then you should be court marshalled.

Ok then. I better get to baking.

Champions

2010-01-24T21:00:00.009-08:00

My friend Dellaina posted this as her Facebook status the other day. It was a t-shirt she saw somewhere:

Champions NEVER complain. They're too busy getting better.

After I got done reading this to Brian and the girls, Rachel replied: "What if they're the champions *of* complaining?"

Good question.

"Dramatic Saga to Financial Freedom" ...or... A Long Story.

2010-01-24T20:09:00.082-08:00

Today I had a friend ask me some questions, and asked for our "story" of how we got out of debt. Instead of trying to send it in a Facebook message or an email, I figured maybe I'd post this story, in case it is actually encouraging to anyone else.

Let me just say that God gets all the glory for our "success"...and we have in no way "arrived" at any form of financial nirvana. We still mess up, probably just not as bad as before. We still overspend sometimes, just not as bad as before. However, the difference is that we don't do the stupid things we used to do, and we communicate about stuff better as well.

We started out counseling with a couple from church, Larry & Marilyn McRae. We met with them for about a year (7:00 on Fridays!) and then tapered our meetings down a bit after the first year or so. They really encouraged us to journal during this time, which is a really good idea.

I suppose our "story" speaks for itself. Basically it's a compilation of my journaling throughout our little "journey to financial freedom". You'll get the idea.

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Tami’s Financial “write-up” - our journey to (finally!) being out of debt
Ok, well, I was told that I’m supposed to write up something about our “dramatic saga to financial freedom”. So here goes:

Money, the final frontier. “The ongoing struggles of two over-spenders, their new mission: to explore the concept of money management. To budget and spend wisely; to seek out wildebeests and hunt down zero balances. To boldly go where few men dare to tread: financial freedom.”
(I’m sure Brian could come up with something better, but this is what you get.)

So, I’m not sure exactly how to start so I’ll just start at the beginning. This, as I understand, is a very good place to start.

So a little history - we had no idea how to manage money - except how to spend it. And even then, we had no idea how to (key word here) wisely spend money.

We both grew up in households where one parent “did” the money stuff and the other parent was virtually out of the loop. Also we weren’t really taught how to manage money or budget. In college (when I first got a credit card), I had no idea that credit cards charged interest, I just thought it was cool that I could buy stuff and not have to pay it until later (and look, they don’t make you pay it all back at once! Awesome!).

One thing that I did learn about money from my family, however, is stewardship. My father was (and continues to be) very adamant that we give back to God when he blesses us. Any time my dad gave us some money as a gift or when we got money from someone or from our jobs, we were taught to give back to the Lord. So that was something that was just engrained and that has always stuck with me. And I would venture to say that anyone who tithes can tell you of a specific instance of how God blessed them.

OK, back to the story.

We had several credit cards (I’ll get into numbers later), most of them with Debt Reduction Services (DRS), a credit “counseling” place; a fluctuating “vacation” savings account (and when I say fluctuating, I mean whenever money came in, it got spent); and a measly checking account that was always being watched like a hawk just to make sure that the checks were clearing right on time - not to early and not too late. That makes for one burdened bookkeeper (yeah, that’s me).

Like I said, I’ll get into numbers later. Suffice it to say that we were in debt, and spiraling uncontrollably into a pit of despair (and I’m not talking about the princess bride kind).
(OK, Larry, you said drama - I’ll give you drama.)

I’ll pause for a moment to say that everything that has happened in our finances and the rest of our lives have been completely orchestrated by God. He has been in control the entire time, through our bad decisions and through any good ones that might have been in there. Even through our journey of misdirected purchases or stupid decisions, He still blessed us. We have always tithed and I believe that is one of the reasons. Also, even through our ignorance and completely uneducated attempts at finances, budgeting, and basically trying to get though in life, He was in control. He protected us after some really bad decisions. He blessed us and got us through some tough spots. He, and only He, carried us through. I just have to make that known; where we are now is not because of anything WE did. It’s completely because we allowed HIM to work and to lead us. That is why we can rejoice and be free.

Needless to say, we needed help. I knew from past conversations with Marilyn that they had done financial counseling with couples. In fact, one of their past “students” had helped give me some budget tips and information. But information without instruction is useless. We needed specific help with specific problems that no one could do without accountability. At some point, I must have mentioned the counseling information to Brian, and he proceeded to talk to Larry one Sunday morning.

Which brings us to our counseling sessions. We started meeting with Larry and Marilyn in April of 2005. I’ll give a number now - looking at a report I made back then, including total credit cards, student loans, and car payments, we were just over $48 grand in debt.

We realized that we were in over our heads, and since neither of us had any money management experience, we needed help. We couldn’t live the way we were living, and had no resources to fix our problem ourselves. There are many emotions that struck us at different times in the process. The risk of baring your soul to someone - finances are a personal thing. The fear of facing the numbers of how much you are actually in debt, and sharing that info with people. The sick feeling you get when you see how much interest you’ve paid over the years, and the realization that you will pay exponentially more if you don’t get out of the hole you’re in! The “income factor” - Brian has a job (electrician) where his income fluctuates often. During times of work there’s a “regular” schedule, and often overtime. But then there are layoffs where you get less than ½ of a normal paycheck, and after 6 months, that unemployment runs out! So there are considerable anxieties to consider. I had a deep anxiety (and if you know me, you know I'm not an anxious person!) about taking money out of my checking account to put in envelopes for monthly expenses (besides the regular bills). I know they could see it in my eyes, even though I didn’t say anything about it when it was first suggested. But after leaving that night, I remember telling Brian that I was “mentally exhausted” and that was the best description I can give. I knew it worked for them, they still used the “envelope system”. But with my history of babysitting every check that I wrote, just to make sure it cleared right on time (not early and not late!), all I can say is WOW. God really gave me peace about it when the time came. We had our spending and saving under control enough by the time we were ready for the envelopes, and we were ready. It worked. We made our envelopes, prioritized them, and the first week we didn’t even have any money to put in them. But I was ready. God is good. And I haven’t worried about bouncing a check since. It’s been several years now, and since we started using this system, I haven't worried about bouncing a check. Praise God!

Another notable concept that I wanted to take out of this is to teach my kids about how to deal with managing money. I want them to grow up and know what a responsibility it is, and how to manage it with wisdom. We teach them to have a saving, spending, and giving envelope, and they keep some savings from chore money in those envelopes. They are starting to have an idea of what it’s like to have money saved (we have a saver and a spender), and that once it’s gone, it’s gone. No borrowing here!

Also, along with the stewardship of managing money is giving. When we were in debt up to our eyeballs, we had no room even to pay off our own bills, much less having any extra to give. We always tithed first, but now that we don’t have debt (except for our house) we are able to use some of our savings for extra “offerings” (Larry likes to call it using “margin for mercy”. You have extra (the margin) and use it to bless someone (mercy).

Notable quotes and sayings:
Larry’s “Pearls of Wisdom”
Brian: “Cautiously Excited” about getting out of debt
Tami: “Mentally Exhausted”
Brian: “I just gotta have a wildebeest”
Larry: “margin for mercy”

There is a “story” for nearly every item paid off. I may not have stories for each and every one, but I can say that after paying off the first item, and realizing that getting out of debt was actually an achievable goal and not just some “nice idea”, we were rearing to go. “What’s next?” was our mantra. This may seem unrelated, but stay with me here. We have two kids who love Disney movies, and our collection is extensive. We are also movie lovers and tend to “speak in movie lines”, ask any of our friends and they will tell you. Well, Larry saw the look of anticipation on Brian’s face when we were talking about the next thing to pay off, and made a comment about how excited he looked - and Brian just burst out with the line (for those of you who aren’t as well-versed in one-liners as we are) from The Lion King: “I just gotta have a wildebeest!” That’s actually a line we used often - it just fit perfectly into that context. So “wildebeest” henceforth became the name of anything we were just itching to pay off. You may hear us mention it if you happen to be in our FPU class at any time. In fact, we had a couple plastic toy wildebeests that sat for a long time on our office desk hutch, as a reminder of our freedom!

Through all of our sessions, we were taken through videos, studies, and the Bible to see what God thinks about how we should handle our money. God really showed us how He wants us to manage our money, spend our money, and save. I think it’s very important to look at what He says about money and how to manage it, and many times people overlook those details.

Here’s the basic overview of our “saga”. We started in April of ‘05. These amounts do not include our house. Credit cards alone totaled $22,416. We owed over $15K on our car, and over $10K on student loans. That total is the one I gave before, $48,216 and some cents. Not sense, mind you.
Keep in mind that we had been with DRS for several years before this, paying stuff off (albeit slowly). Overall we had much more debt but the total above is what we started with on this “journey”. Sometime I’ll have to figure out THAT number. (EEKS!)

During the first year-and-few-months of being on a budget, we paid off one of the small student loans, and ALL of our credit cards. Here’s how (in a reasonably small nutshell, considering all the details I could include): We figured out how much our monthly bills cost, and whatever was left over we used for envelopes. When Brian had overtime money, that all went into savings. That’s basically it. Some weeks we had enough for all our envelopes, some weeks we didn’t (our envelopes are prioritized). Some weeks we had more than we needed so our savings started accumulating. God gave him so much overtime that year that we paid off all our credit cards. We also paid down our house and loans, but only the normal payments, since we first wanted to say bye-bye to all the livestock roaming around.

In May of ’06, I went back to work (my former boss asked me to come back since they needed help). In June Brian was laid off. In July, we paid off our last credit card. Brian went back to work in October, I think, and during that layoff we not only killed the final wildebeest, but put money in savings. It was one of those “God” things. Brian's unemployment check covered the normal monthly bills (and even allowed us to save some money for taxes, since UE isn’t taxable) and some savings, and my paycheck covered the envelope money, and savings. It was nothing short of miraculous. It was really awesome to be able to see progress through the year. When we had some money saved up, and had some debt with a small amount left to be due, we would pay it off. It really helped us see some progress even though we were in over our heads. (Example: Brian’s student loan, which was small - one of the first to be paid off.)

Basically, after paying off one card, the $$ that was being used for that payment just rolled to the next card. So our payments to the debt reduction place stayed the same - and that just meant that every time something was paid off, the next card got a bigger payment each month, creating this exponential payoff. It went so much faster than we could have ever imagined.

After the credit cards were paid off, we worked toward what was left; the other student loan and the car. We paid off the car in the spring of ’07, and the student loan in the fall of ’07. Now we’re completely debt free, except for our house, which we actually have equity in now, because we stopped refinancing to get money to pay off our credit card debt. We did that a couple times, and it’s not something I would recommend. Ever.

Some credit card payoff stories:

~Returning Bowflex to pay one of the first credit cards not already with DRS. After wondering about selling it and then praying about it, God gave Brian the realization that he could return it!!) (7/3/05)
~Ending the year in ’05 we had paid off 3 credit cards and a student loan, over $8000. Actually, In 1/06, the yearly “review” showed that from April of 05 we ended up going from 22416 to 13514 on our credit card balances (8902 paid down).
~(3/21/06) I noted that with the overtime God had given Brian lately, we could have paid off the DRS balance with what we had in savings (to the tune of another $8000, I think). But we were holding off because we didn’t know about Brian’s job at the time.
~I already noted that we paid off the last credit card in July of ’06. Basically, we decided that if we paid off the chunk of the last balances, at the time was around $7000, we saved ourselves over $700 of interest if we had just paid them off over time. We figured it was worth whatever risk it was, to deplete our savings to pay off the rest. As it turned out, it was a wise decision and God honored it.

I guess I will go through and list some of the other “God” things - ways He showed us that He was working in our lives through all this. There are so many obvious things - too many to list really, but I will list some.

~House refinance (7/31/05) - lowest interest rate possible at the time, and we locked it in right before they started rising again. We also got a little bit of extra from the payout and added it to our savings account (and finally to pay some things off later).
~Extra grocery money, in the mail right before going to the store. One was from friends who we let use a high chair (7/1/05), and from my parents before a visit (12/14/05).
~Extra pizza (I think they messed up our order so we got a free one) (7/3/05)
~God took away my anxiety about taking money out of checking for envelopes (7/8/05)
~My discouragement/anxiety about layoffs caused me to claim Matthew 6:25-34, and when sharing with a friend, God encouraged her also through my struggles (7/31/05). I was given a situation and was able to encourage someone else through it (friend, you know who you are.).
~After the refinance, we also got a check from extra money in our escrow account (to the tune of around $700) so were able to put that in savings and eventually use that for payoffs.
~Christmas ’05 - My parents had given us some extra money (they do that from time to time - like I said - my generous parents, and yes, we tithed on it…) and we hadn’t really saved for Christmas so we were able to use some of that money for gifts.

We had a ‘test’ in when spending money is “necessary” and “optional”. I broke a window in the Camry by mistake (it was duct-tape-able), and where earlier in life we would have used a credit card to replace it, this time we just dealt with it and waited until our envelope had money in it. (8/14/05) Priorities shifting to the correct places!

Through all of this “journal reading” I see that this entire year we were expecting layoffs. God really allowed Brian to have a job (and lots of overtime) through all of this (we were wondering about layoffs for this whole year and even before). I kept thanking God that Brian still had a job (“it looks like he’s ok for now”). I hadn’t remembered how “impending” that layoff was, but never happened until we were in an “ok” place to handle the layoff (1/2 of our debt paid, money in savings, me with a job).

All in all, our “dramatic journey into financial freedom” has been really amazing. God blessed our efforts. We have had layoffs since, and have not worried about it at all, because we had savings and were able to hang in there. We still use our envelopes and sometimes get sloppy, we admit that, but have learned so much through the past few years and are so thankful to God and to his servants who dedicate so much of their time and effort and emotion into helping people get through some really tough times.

Update 6/9/09
No layoffs right now but again Brian’s out in the area so there is always a possibility. God has made it possible for us to move into a new house finally after 12 years in our cute little cracker box. He sold our house for us at the end of Summer '08, we had this one built and then moved into it in January '09. He has brought us so far and we are so thankful for the things He has taught us. It’s amazing to me - every day I am amazed at the things He does. I pray that by sharing our story and experiences we can in some way be an encouragement to others going through the process of getting free from the financial burden of debt.

Update 1/24/10
We have now been living in our house for a year - I should probably stop calling it my "new" house. We still have steps to go - as far as investing, saving for college, and such. We are now (in February) starting our second year of facilitating a Financial Peace University class led through video by Dave Ramsey. Interestingly enough, he teaches many of the techniques we used in getting out of debt, although we hadn't gone through his course until we were completely out of debt. When we went through our counseling we studied Larry Burkett mostly, and touched sometimes on Dave Ramsey stuff. As it turns out, though, the techniques and principles are really the same. This class has really brought it all together in a great way. It has helped so many others get out of debt, and learn to live by taking control of their money, instead of having their money control them. That was how we were living and we are here to tell you: financial freedom is a very attainable goal.

At one time right at the beginning of our counseling, we asked the McRaes why they still used the envelopes. Their answer: "Freedom". We thought they were crazy. No joke. But we kept with it, and now we say the exact same thing. We use the envelope system for spending (sometimes we get a little off course but never stray far), we always put money in savings, every paycheck (gotta love direct deposit), and we can both truthfully say that we control our money, not the other way around -- and that is financial freedom. We still have work to do with saving for college funds and other investments so that is where we need to work now. But the day to day finances are under control, and it's all because we swallowed our pride and asked for some help.

Hope that's helpful information to someone out there.

Breakfast

2009-11-23T08:09:00.004-08:00

Rachel: Mom, I don't have enough cream cheese on my bagel. Can I have some more?

Me: Ok. Well sometimes I put on the cream cheese and you guys say you have too much, so I just never know.

Rachel (using her cute little sweet voice): Well, a mistake is an opportunity to learn.

Thanks for the tip.

2009-10-22T08:21:00.003-07:00

Join us for an evening of praise and worship with contemporary music. As you know if you've been to a worship night before, it's not actually a concert (if you've not been to one of our events, well, now you know). You are invited to worship *with* us. Our events are not about us, but they are about praising our God and King!

DOXA means Praise, Honor, Glory.

The purpose of our worship nights is to praise God with our gifts, to honor Him with our obedience, and to glorify Him with our worship.

We invite everyone to come and join us in worship through music! You will often hear an invitation to DOXA include the words "rockin' out for Jesus"!

Come join us as we honor God and glorify Him with our praise.

Date: Saturday, October 24, 2009
Time: 6:30pm - 8:00pm
Location: Quinault Baptist Church
5400 W Canal Dr
Kennewick, WA

Click here for the Facebook Event page!

Hope you can make it.

Tasha's Wedding

2009-06-30T11:35:00.012-07:00

Wow. Tasha's wedding. Tasha's. Wedding. My little baby sister is married. Well it was inevitable, I guess. She's beautiful, funny, smart, talented - just to name a few - so someone was bound to see all those things that I see -- but it would be weird for me to marry her, so I'm glad someone else did. Jesus is an awesome guy - a fellow army band member, so also very musically talented, also very funny, and he's not bad on the eyes either. The wedding was very cool. I'll give a brief synopsis of the weekend.

Friday Tasha and Tanya and I ran some errands. We had to go downtown to get a few things, and of course, right after we parked and walked a couple blocks, it started pouring. Not just pouring, but an all out cloudburst. Crazy! Of course it didn't start before we left the car, where I had umbrellas. So we got pretty wet. But what are you going to do? I just figured it was a good thing I was wearing flip flops, so my feet would dry out faster. It rained like that off and on for the rest of the day. I was glad I put in the umbrellas, just in case!

The rehearsal dinner plans were changed due to weather - still raining - but we made it work and it all turned out great. I was still thankful for those umbrellas. Friday night I got to stay with the bridesmaids at the hotel. Tanya and a couple of the girls and I stayed in one room with Tasha; the other bridesmaids had family there and stayed with them. All of us got together Friday night to hang out and talk and do "bridesmaid" stuff, I guess. We also gave Tasha tickets to see West Side Story on Broadway in New York this week. I'm not sure what day the show is, but this is the week they are in NY. We pitched in to get them tickets; she was super excited. This was a fun night but a slightly late one, for getting up the next morning for a wedding!

Saturday it was cool in the morning, but nothing a hot coffee wouldn't fix. We got things set up in the park and although it was busy, most everyone had a job and did their job and got things done. We girls got back to the hotel at about 11-ish to start getting ready, getting hair fixed, makeup on, dresses on, and once we were all ready we took some pictures at the hotel before going to the park. It was fun getting pictures taken, and Jai (pronounced "jay") and Drew, the photographers were awesome. Jai rode with me and the trolls to the park, and she showed me some of the shots she got; very fun!! I can't wait to see all the pictures they took.

All in all, the wedding went pretty well! There were a few bumps in the road, but those bumps were smoothed out without too much trouble. Brian was put in charge of finding a replacement vase that had gotten broken in transit; it was full of marbles and whoever moved it didn't remove the marbles; and marbles are not too forgiving when sitting in a glass vase in a moving vehicle up a bumpy road to a park (it was particularly bumpy in one place). He called me from Goodwill, asking if Tasha cared what it looked like...to which she answered "not even a little bit", which shows how easy going she actually was, for it being her wedding day and things not going exactly as planned. She did great. I am sure that I would not have handled it as gracefully, but she's several years older than I was when I got married. Meaning, she's more "grown up" than I was. Not that she is old. If she's old, that means I'm old(er). Perish the thought.

Right before the wedding, I think it was, I remember people asking "does anyone have a corkscrew or bottle opener? We need both!". There must have been a well-prepared girl or boy scout around, because I actually saw two bottle openers/corkscrews at the bar area. Don't worry - it's an expression. I am sure said "girl or boy scout" was a responsible adult. I'm not an expert, and I was never in the girl scouts, but I don't think corkscrews are standard girl scout issue.

During the ceremony there was a mariachi band playing music; and also through a good part of the reception - it was awesome. I'm not sure what a traditional Mexican wedding would include, but this wedding had many influences from Jesus's side of the family. Mariachi band, tostada bar for dinner afterward, including Corona and Negra Modelo (which I must say is not bad, and I'm not normally a beer drinker). The cake was Tres Leches, which was heavenly. Oh my word, that cake was SO good.

The rain stayed away for most of the day, which was an answer to prayer! We had a huge tent where the ceremony was held, but the reception stuff (food, tables) were next to it and not covered. The rain started to sprinkle during the reception just a bit, when Brian and I got our food, so we put our plates down and took a table under the tent. It wasn't raining much then, but a bit later it rained harder for a little bit. A bunch of us grabbed some more tables to put under the cover, but then it let up and didn't rain for the rest of the day. Not too bad for a questionable weather day in Portland (is there any other kind?).

Of course we had to do toasts for the bride and groom (yay for champagne!), so the Best Man and Best Woman (two of Jesus's closest friends) gave their toasts, and then I toasted for me and my sister Tanya (we were the "Sisters of Honor"). I wasn't quite sure what I was going to say, and I was praying for God to give me words. During the toast right before mine, I heard an ice cream truck driving up on the road above us in the park...then I knew exactly what to say. Tasha even had something about Jesus appreciating her love of ice cream in her vows - so this was perfect. After making sure that Tanya wasn't saying anything (she didn't want to talk for fear of crying in front of everyone), and letting everyone know that I was basically speaking for both of us, I told Tasha I was proud of her self discipline, for not taking off running to the ice cream truck when she heard it. After a few more words of encouragement (I hope), my job there was done. Cheers!!

After some cake, the Mariachi band left and the Salsa band came in, and we got to dance the afternoon away. Jesus and Tasha danced the first dance, then the dance instructor (Javier) came in and taught everyone else how to do the Salsa. It was really fun. Later I danced with Jesus (he told me how the guy leads and shows what to do next), and then I got to dance with Javier, which was really fun too.

We all had a really fun time. It was fun for me to see lots of army band people who I hadn't seen for a long time; I think I probably had seen them since I got out of the army, but since some of them are retired from the band, I hadn't seen them at the last concerts I had been to. So it was really fun, kind of a reunion of army band folks. I was in the band for 12 years, so many of these people are like family to me.

All in all, it was a great wedding. Even though things never go exactly as planned, things went well and people enjoyed the celebration. Emma and Rachel were the flower girls, so they got to be a part of the ceremony and got to wear their pretty dresses and sprinkle rose petals and dance and eat cake and tostadas and drink sparkling cider. They loved the salsa dancing too; while I danced with Jesus, Brian danced with the girls. Super fun! Now we're going to have to go take dancing lessons. It's so much fun.

I will post some of my pictures; however I didn't get very many. My camera wasn't working right and Brian couldn't get many pictures. So I took some with my phone; that's about all we have for now. The photographers were awesome, and I can't wait to see what they got. That was another fun part of the day. So when those are available I will put some of them in. For now, here's what I have.

Enjoy!

(this first picture was not good because the camera was on the fritz; but I thought it was still a really good picture.)

Jesus's grandparents, and Tanya peeking out from the dressing tent

Lunch for the guys at the wedding site. These are a couple of Jesus's uncles.

Jesus is going over his vows; Brian thought it was funny to take a picture with the no pets sign.

Here's us...Sarah did a good job making my hair "wedding" worthy

The girls' favorite part of the wedding was the salsa dancing

The beautiful bride

Trampolines

2009-06-29T21:29:00.012-07:00

We now have a trampoline...our friends are leaving the country for a couple years, and let us "store" it at our house. Our girls keep telling people "we have a trampoline for 2 years!", which confuses people because they wonder what happens after 2 years, not knowing the situation. It's kind of funny.

So they love the trampoline, they are out there all the time - they finally want to play outside. Who knew?!? So I am going to post some pictures I took yesterday of them - should be fun to see what I got; I haven't even looked at the pictures yet.

Here goes...

Priorities

2009-04-02T00:33:00.007-07:00

2 Timothy 3:14-17 (New International Version)
14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
~~
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (New American Standard Bible)
14You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
15and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
16All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
~~
2 Timothy 3:14-17 (New Living Translation)
14 But you must remain faithful to the things you have been taught. You know they are true, for you know you can trust those who taught you. 15 You have been taught the holy Scriptures from childhood, and they have given you the wisdom to receive the salvation that comes by trusting in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right. 17 God uses it to prepare and equip his people to do every good work.

OK. So I can't sleep again until I write these thoughts down.

I have always liked comparing versions of the bible. I'm not going to get into the argument about what version is better than another. Not the point. And frankly not an argument worth arguing about, in my honest opinion. There are more important things on which to spend my time.
Such as: If the Word is inspired by God, and if the Word is used to teach me the Truth and to convict me of what is wrong in my life, why (WHY?!) am I not reading it constantly, so I will learn more Truth and so that I may find out more things about myself that must be changed so that I will become more like Christ? Why is this not one of my main priorities in life?
Why do I not hunger and thirst for it constantly? There are times that I do. But then, LIFE happens and I get off track. Which is another topic altogether, because I (my Self) get myself off track, and the enemy also pulls me off track. So I must don my spiritual armor and fight the good fight so that I will always hunger for the Word, instead of being led off the right path to hunger for lesser things.

But if I am off track, I must come back to what I know. I must remain faithful to Christ. He is my salvation. There is nothing else. How did I come to know Christ? Through His Word. He is the Living Word. The written form of the Living Word is how He is made clear to us, through the Holy Spirit. It's late, so I hope that made sense. ?? This Scripture with which we have come to know Christ was inspired by the Creator of the universe. By the Maker of all things. By our Father. It was "God-breathed". This God-breathed scripture is what teaches us right from wrong. It is used to teach us, convict us, correct us, to train us in righteousness so that we will become equipped for 'every good work'. When we aren't the person we know we should be, do we go directly to the Word, the God-Breathed, inspired Word of God? Or do we try to fix ourselves, by our own means? Do we go to a self help book, or a friend, or a counselor? Given, these things are all helpful, but let's get our priorities straight. MY Priorities straight. The Word should be first. It should come to my mind first. I should have His words in my heart because from the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks. I should go to The Word because THAT is what convicts, teaches, rebukes, trains. I should be studying what God tells me in it way more than I am. Therefore, I am currently convicted by the Word, which is, I'm sure the reason that God led me to these verses tonight. He knows my priorities aren't in the right place.

Lord, Thank you for your Word, for its power, its divinely inspired truths. I want to be faithful to what You have taught me. I thank you for the wisdom you have given me to understand your message of Salvation. I thank you for Jesus and that I can bring my burdens to the foot of the Cross, and I thank you for taking them on yourself. Lord, give me your power to fight the fight. Remind me to put on my armor and to always be ready for the enemy's attacks. Give me your power over my Self and selfish desires. Enable me to do Your work and give me strength for each task you put before me. The more I read Your Word, the more I desire You. I wish I could more elequently state how much I desire to please You and to know You.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Now what I really need to do is stop staying up so late. I need to go to bed earlier, get up earlier, read and write in the morning, or write during the day, and then stop the cycle of not being able to sleep at night for all the thoughts running around in my head.
And I'll have to check back tomorrow to see if any of this makes sense.

We'll see. And no comments allowed today on punctuation, grammar, or spelling. It's late.

Rambling

2009-03-24T22:09:00.010-07:00

Wow. It's been a while. And I'm not even sure why I'm writing tonight except for the fact that I feel like writing. I really should be heading to bed. However, it seems like every time I go to bed (especially when I try to go to bed early) I can't sleep for all the thoughts bouncing around inside my head. It wouldn't seem like there would be all that much room in there with all the voices, but apparently there's enough to share.

I enjoy writing. It works better for me than talking, since I can get my thoughts out on "paper", see them, and then retype them to sound better. It's like an "inner monologue" that I can read and edit instead of saying stupid stuff. (To anyone who really knows me...you know the drill. You understand that it's way better that I write it instead of trying to get my thoughts to come out of my mouth correctly. See? This is where I need God soooo desperately when talking to people. Or talking at all.) So, ordinarily I type stuff on the computer, save it for another time, re-read it another day, edit it, maybe post it someday on a blog, not expecting anyone to read it or even care. So tonight, instead, I'm just going to put my thoughts out here.

Cut to the chase. God has been telling me for some time that I am a coward. Not that I realized it, and He didn't come right out and say it, but in subtle ways over the past month or two, I have gotten that message. I was thinking the other day that I live in a pretty sheltered bubble. I have friends from church, mainly, that I am in contact with most. Other than that, it's the occasional smile at a person in the grocery store (usually I ignore people, not purposely, it's just because I'm in my own little world and sticking to my list), or a wave at a new neighbor, since it's not warm enough outside for people to be venturing out much.

So I realized the other day that I rarely talk to people that don't have Jesus in their life, and if I ever do talk to moms in the girls' school classes, or anyone else, it's small talk and you don't ever get down to deep subjects like salvation. So why is that? Why is it, that something that important in life (and beyond!) is so unimportant to me - or seemingly so?

Since I'm sure I'm not the only one that God has talked to about this subject, I'm going to go ahead and speak (ok, write) as if you are part of this whole thing too. So...I ask again... Why is it, that something that important in life (and beyond!) is so unimportant to US - or seemingly so?

Well, I guess it's because we're cowards and don't want to come out and ask someone if they know the Lord or ask them if they realize that their "faith" is counterfeit, or that they're brainwashed and following a cult? OK. That's harsh, I know it can be nicer or more subtle than that. But does it have to be? I'm just saying. Jesus wasn't always super nice, he was sowing seeds in some crazy places and was ridiculed - and He told us that the same thing would happen to us. IF we are actually doing His work. Are we? Seriously, why is it that we don't come right out and talk about something so important? I guess it's because we don't want to rock the boat. "I don't want to judge them." "I don't want to seem like I'm pushing my religion on them." " I don't want to be judgmental, but..." "I don't want to offend anyone." I'm not making those up. If you haven't thought one of those recently, either you're seasoned at evangelism or you're lying to yourself, or maybe you also live in your own little bubble.

OK. Here's the deal. Again, if you know me at all, you know that I do not believe in coincidences. God is in control and whatever happens to us is filtered through His hands and He has allowed things to happen in our lives for certain reasons. If I say that I believe this about "coincidence", then I am contradicting myself if I do not take every opportunity He gives me.

If I am sitting in McDonald's talking to a mom from school while our kids are playing on the playground thingy, and if I don't show Jesus to her, somehow, then I have wasted that opportunity. [Keep in mind here that I still feel like a coward as I write this. I have no idea what I would have said to that mom, I just know that I needed to say something, and God would have given me the words, if I'd let Him have the chance.] How many wasted opportunities have we all experienced? How many of those opportunities can we NOT waste tomorrow?

So there we have it...more ramblings. It's how I roll. Bottom line: I need to quit making excuses for not sharing the Gospel. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ! I need to tell people about it and not worry about what people think of me. I can post my blogs or whatever online, and not worry what other people think of me. I can sing praises to the Lord and not be ashamed for showing emotion, for being exuberant, for being excited about Jesus. I can be a witness, in line at the grocery store, or online on a message board. I don't care if someone doesn't agree with me. It's my opinion, right?

Well, actually, it's the Truth. Jesus.

Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father but through me."
John 14:6

So there you have it.

House

2009-01-23T10:22:00.006-08:00

OK. So the year in review wasn't as quick as I had hoped. Oh well.

Here's a picture of us in front of the new house. It's our "happy new year" card picture. Enjoy...

2008

2009-01-23T09:36:00.005-08:00

Well, this isn't going to be a significantly detailed review, but it will touch the highlights of the year I guess. God definitely did some significant things this year...many of which I just have to share. So here goes, the year in (fairly quick I hope) review:

The year started out with Brian still laid off from work - carried over from the end of the prior year. He started working at the beginning of February out at Bechtel (Hanford area), at the Vitrification plant, on a maintenance crew. Basically his job is to help keep the area maintained while the other workers build the Vit plant which isn't supposed to even be operational until 2019 or something like that. So, there is a chance he might be employed for a long time...but there's really no telling, since that's just the way things are out there.

Let's see...I know that at the start of the year we helped lead a class for Financial Peace University (Dave Ramsey) that was held at our church. After going through some significant debt payoff over the past few years, we were asked to kind of be "apprentices" for the class, and now we are actually leading the class this year. It's cool to be able to share our experiences, hopefully God will use us to encourage others in their quest for Financial Freedom.

The summer was different this year; we didn't have the "luxury" of a layoff this summer (we did for the past two summers), so I had to really cut my work hours so I could be home with the girls. It was wonderful for me, I loved it. Work, on the other hand, didn't like it as much. My employers are awesome though, very flexible and they just worked with me so I could be home with the girls and then what probably averaged out to about once a week I would come in to work, bring them with me, and get some work done. It worked out well, since my employers are a husband and wife who run a business out of their home. I'm very thankful for their flexibility!

The biggest thing in the summer was that we decided to put our house up for sale. This was quite a roller-coaster ride to say the least. But God is faithful and got us through it. We weren't sure what to expect, but wanted the most out of our house so we decided to sell it "by owner". We purged the house of extraneous clutter, and two little 5' x 10' storage units later, put it up for sale on July 16. After only 10 weeks on the market we had an interested buyer! So we ended up signing the sale on October 30, and I think it closed on November 3.

During the whole selling process, of course, we were trying to decide where to live next. We have loved a certain house for probably over 8 years; another Aho Construction house plan. Our first house was built by Aho, and we've always loved it. So long story short (too late), we decided to have Aho build another one for us. We found a lot we liked with a flat driveway (Brian's non-negotiable), and gave them the go-ahead to build that house plan we've always loved. It has a laundry room upstairs where the bedrooms are (my non-negotiable), 4 bedrooms, and over 2500 square feet of space - as opposed to our first house which had 1089. We even opted for the 3 car garage with a 4th "bay" in the back, to make even more space for Brian to have his workout equipment.

Keep in mind that all of these things were not decided on easily. Our final lot choice was the 3rd one. We had put earnest money down on one lot, then moved our choice, and then we took our money off completely until we decided for sure whether we wanted to do it. I think God needed us to stop making decisions on our own and let HIM lead them instead. We learned a lot this summer about waiting on God. Wow. But God saved us the perfect lot! It's huge and across the street from a park and has a nice view of the Tri Cities.

So, we told Aho to build our house on October 25 I think. Then it takes them 3 months to build a house. We thought about trying to rent an apartment, but apparently renting has died and now you have to lease a place for 6 months or more. So much for that idea. However, Brian's parents graciously decided to make room for us and we were able to stay there while the house was built! We are so thankful to them for allowing us to do that. It was such a blessing! The girls loved living with Gramy and Grampa, and we were relieved not to have to pay a huge rent bill and to have a roof over our heads.

We drove by our house almost every day - in the morning I would take the girls by and see what they were going to do that day, and then after school we would see all the progress and sometimes get out and walk around. It's amazing how fast a house goes up. Check out the pictures - they're dated and you can see how fast some of it went. Sometime in November we got a letter saying our completion date would be January 20 - less than 3 months after we signed the contract. Pretty cool.

The holidays went by quickly as always. We stayed here for Thanksgiving and traveled to Oregon for Christmas. That was another adventure in itself. On Monday the 22nd we drove from Tri-Cities to The Dalles and spent a night there since the freeway was closed at Hood River. That trip took about 3 hours, only 1/2 hour longer than normal. Then the next day the Gorge opened up and we drove from The Dalles to Dallas. Normally a 2-1/2 hour trip, that took 6. WOW! I think you can find pictures from Christmas if you go to my house albums and then look at the other albums I have posted there. I got some great snow pictures.

When we got to my parents' house, there was still no electricity (hadn't had any since the weekend before), so we got to "rough it" a little bit. That day was my mom's birthday so we went out to dinner that night. The next day was Christmas Eve and we got power back that evening. Christmas was great and we had a good time. The drive home was closer to the usual 5 hour trip.

The last few weeks have been spent planning what to do, when to move, packing things up again, and last weekend we actually got to move into our house. We signed papers last Thursday, got our keys on Friday, and moved in on Saturday. We had lots of help (thanks everybody), and I'm making headway on the unpacking process. It will take a while but we'll get done eventually!

So that recaps the last year pretty well. God really did some cool stuff last year! It's fun to see how some of the things have worked out, especially when I remember how we wondered HOW things would possibly work out at the time. There was so much more detail to most of the stuff I have written but I guess if you really want more detail, you'll ask.

Happy New Year!

Most Current House Pictures

2009-01-05T20:18:00.003-08:00

Click the picture to see the most current 2009 pictures!!

Photobucket Album

New House Pictures

2009-01-05T20:09:00.003-08:00

If you click on the picture below it should take you to my photo album of pictures of the house. It starts with some of the options we chose for our house. Then you'll see the empty lot, and lots of pictures of the progress!
We're really excited. The completion date is January 20, so we're nearly a month away from moving in.
Enjoy the pictures, I will add more as we take more, so check and see what comes next!
The following album has our 2008 pictures...there's another album with the 2009 pictures.

Photobucket Album

2008-12-03T23:10:00.002-08:00

Wow. I've gone a whole month now and haven't posted a single thing. I have been meaning to post pictures of our house progress. I will do so soon. In the meantime, for updating purposes, I will just write a brief overview of the last month.

We've moved in with Brian's parents until our house is done. Our house is scheduled to be done by January 20. We are very thankful for our new house, for a place to stay in the meantime, and for God's hand in all of it. I will post my pictures soon.

Things are so busy right now that I don't have much time to do it. This week is our Christmas program at church so I've been running here and there to practices and stuff.

It's really interesting to see how fast the house has progressed. In fact I might even put the pictures in a different form than posting here because frankly, posting multiple pictures on my blog posts is kind of a pain. So I will think about that.

In the meantime, please be patient with me and I will make a way to view the pictures very soon.

Famous last words.

Mermades

2008-10-29T08:44:00.007-07:00

I found this today and had to share.
I guess this was from Rachel's "Little Mermaid 2" phase.
I love the bubbles of what they're saying: Ariel says "I will find you my darling", and Melody's quotes the song she sings, "for a moment just a moment I'll be free!". If you have seen the movie, you'll recognize the lyrics.
I also particularly like her first couple attempts at writing the name "ariel", down at the bottom of the first half of the page, as well as the details of the mermaid - right down to the belly button and seashell bikini top.

Rest In Peace Slinky

2008-10-22T06:59:00.004-07:00

We experienced a death in the family. Our little Slinky. Best we can figure, he must have been sick or something. We took him out to feed him (and of course when I say "we" I mean "ME"), and - well - let's just say he didn't make it. I actually picked up a dead snake. Who would do that voluntarily? It was sad, but on Saturday after going to tell the builders to start our house, we went to our new backyard and had a little burial ceremony.

Emma has handled it pretty well. Of course the death of Slinky only means that Slinky No. Two will not be far behind. She is even looking at the bigger versions of the same species...and wants to get one that's significantly larger and eats live rats instead of dead pinky mice. Well, we'll see about that, but we decided not to get another snake until after we move into our new house in February or so. This will save poor Gramy from having a snake in her house. It actually will work out better, one less thing to move. And more time to look for a replacement snake, I guess. :)

Emma is quite the artist, as many of you know. The following two drawings have been on my refrigerator for the past couple of days and I must post them. The cage picture shows exactly what was in there, from the little log he hid under to the water dish (water included) with the little ramp that went down into it. He used to climb the tree thingy and then slither up onto the temperature and humidity dials. Funny.

Enjoy!

Tired, Hungry, and Bored

2008-10-08T12:25:00.004-07:00

On Saturday night we had a meeting to draw up the offer on our house. The girls of course were with us, and brought things to do while we did our thing. They were so patient, but by the time we were done, they were definitely ready to go. I think Rachel brought this note over to me on behalf of both of them. You can see that they specifically told us who was feeling what, and Emma's little drawing of the house is cute. You can see the playset in the back, and even the basketball hoop and a ball. Funny!

Use Your Brain

2008-10-08T08:04:00.006-07:00

Rachel brought home some finished math homework the other day. She got all the correct answers, and at the bottom was asked to elaborate; here is the exact wording of the question:
"Explain your thinking. Tell or show how you found your answers."
A note from her teacher in red below her answer says: "Tell me how using words, numbers, or pictures." Apparently her answer wasn't exactly what they were looking for.

And Rachel's answer? Here it is...

"I used my brain, got a little bit of help, but not much. Any way, I just used my brain."

That's my girl.

Emma's Drawrings

2008-10-01T16:15:00.006-07:00

Emma drew these pictures - One yesterday, and two today. Alas, she didn't draw them in the bathtub. Sorry to break it to you, Simon.

Rachel-isms

2008-10-01T15:39:00.004-07:00

The fun things Rachel says (again, the documented ones)

Her birthdate is 10/28/01, for reference...

§ 9/23/08: “I like working with littler kids so I’m going to be a teacher [when I grow up]”.

§ Sometime in the year she was 5 (2007 or 2008): we were eating dinner with Jim & Daja, and Rachel gave the excuse for something she did, or something she couldn’t do…I can’t remember the exact thing, but what she said was so funny… “but mom, I’m only 5…”

§ 3/09/08: After practicing her jump-roping for quite a while, Rachel came in and said, “oooh my legs really hurt!!” So I told her maybe she should quit jumping rope for a while if her legs hurt. She replied, “I can’t quit, I have to fight heart disease!”

Wow, I skipped, like 4 years here. Oops. When I remember any of them I'll have to add them.

§ July or August 04: We were getting out of the car at Dana's and Rachel showed me her doll and said, "This is hideous." I said, "What?" and she showed me her doll again - it was apparently the dolls name. I laughed and said "That's not a name, that's just a word." So she looked at her doll and then back at me and said, "Her name is Sally."

§ 6/10/04: Rachel is still learning the word "my". She has some medicine to take from Dr. Jared and the pills are quite large...she told daddy tonight (with some coaxing from me, of course), "Daddy, I took mine horse pill." Basically, any place you would normally put the word "my", she puts "mine". "Mama, mine cup spilled" or whatever. It's SO cute.

§ 4/8/04: They’re playing in the bedroom and I hear Emma say “Don’t tell on me!” and then Rachel says “grrr! I’m not! I’m telling on me!”. Rachel then comes and tells me “I’m telling on Emma.” And then goes back in to the bedroom! (I never did know what either of them did)

§ 4/6/04: The girls got out of bed and came into the kitchen and Rachel said “Mama, I’m sick. I have a frog in my mouth.”

§ 3/13/04: Rachel was getting in bed and she didn’t want to go to sleep. One excuse was “I want to sleep with Emma” (they sleep in the same room), and another was “Mama, I’m scared of the dark!” so I put a night light by her bed.

§ 3/18/04: I was getting her spoon for applesauce at breakfast. I asked her what color the spoon was (it was green) and she said “white!” And then I asked her again, “what color is the spoon?” She said “pretend it’s white, ok?” It was so funny! Then I asked her again and she said purple and laughed (she liked to kid, and knew the right color). Finally, I said “Come on, Ra Ra – what’s the real color? Then we’ll pretend it’s white.” So she said “GREEN!”

§ 3/something/04: While in the car, Rachel said that Emma did something to her, so I asked her what she did. Rachel then went into detail about how Emma hit her with an empty water bottle, and when Emma said she didn’t do it, Rachel said “Emma, don’t interrupt!” and proceeded to finish telling me what Emma did. Again, Emma cut in to say she didn’t do it, and Rachel again said “Emma, don’t in – a – wup!”

Emma-isms

2008-10-01T15:09:00.009-07:00

The Fun things Emma says (at least the ones we've documented)

Most of these have dates, but the ones that don't are when she was probably 3 or 4...when she was learning to talk, read, write, etc. For reference on dates: she was born 5/18/99.

§ Note from Emma, actual spelling of words: I love you mama beekas you aer my mama.

§ A post it note with a globe and a sun: “The erth is tiny ckumpared to the sun.” p.s. I found the picture of this one! Here it is:

§ Not sure when this was, but sometime in early 2004 I think. Emma was saying her prayers and she had recently had a cough. We had talked about how sometimes when you're sick it makes you stronger so you don't get even more sick later. She prayed, "thank you for my cough that makes me strong so I can carry my desk or something."

§ Dec. 30, 2004: Emma asked me, "Mama, does Santa know us?" and I said "what do you think?" She replied, "yes...but if he knows us, then why did he put chocolate in Rachel's stocking?" (she knew Rachel shouldn't have stuff with milk in it)

§ Brian told Emma, “I’m pooped.” Emma said “daddy, what does “pooped” mean?” Brian told her it meant that you’re tired, and Emma said, “daddy, you should just say ‘tired’.”

§ 3/16/04 When asking Rachel to play outside with her: “Rachel, let’s play Toy Story! You be scud the dog, and I’ll be Sid, the happy child.” (There's a line in the movie where Buz says “what, that happy child?”)

§ October 2003: Riding in the car, Emma was singing the wise man/foolish man song. In the middle of the song, she stopped mid-sentence and said, “Rachel, rain is water dripping from God.” And then she continued singing where she left off.

§ 1/26/03 at Bennett’s house for superbowl: Emma, after pulling out all the dress up clothes and half-clothed herself: “Abby said a bad word to me.” When I asked her what it was, she said “she told me to CLEAN UP.”

§ 10/22/02 Emma walked into my room all dressed up, and when I saw her I said, "You're beautiful!" She said, "I know." I said, "Sweety, if someone says you're beautiful, you need to say thank you." So she said "Thank you, I know I'm beautiful." A few minutes later, she asked "Mama, can this beauty-ful girl have some lipstick?" And then later, “Can this pretty girl have a drink?”

§ 10-18-02: Emma's tummy kind of didn't feel good so she said she was sick. I told her if she was sick, she'd have to lay in her bed all day. She said "I'm not sick anymore. I went to the doctor yesterday and he checked my feelings."

§ Same day: I turned up the music in the car, and Emma told me to turn it down: "Mama, when it's louder it makes me yawn! I don't want to be yawned!"

§ 10/15/02 Another Emma Dialogue: At dinner one night, after Emma had been playing with glitter glue earlier that day (and I had been helping her), I said, "Oh, great. I've got glitter on my shirt." Emma said "I didn't do it." I said, "I didn't say you did, silly." She said "I know, I was just talking to myself.''

§ Driving in the car, listening to music: I asked Emma, “did you like that part?” she said, very politely: “I’m busy right now, Mama,” while playing the keychain-flute to the music.

§ 8/1/02: I was sitting at the computer, and heard “MOMMY!” (I had just put Emma to bed, she had said her prayers, I gave her kisses and hugs, I turned on her music and turned off the lights…). I opened the door, and said “WHAT…” in that “what-in-the-world-could-you-possibly-want-now” voice, and she says (are you ready for this?) “my kiss is coming off.” I turned on the light, and said “What?” again (the voice was different this time), and she said “my kiss is coming off” and pointed to her cheek where I had just kissed her. Of course I went over and gave her another kiss… (and of course I won’t go for that twice in one night…)

§ 7/25/02: “Mama, you’re so proud to me!”

§ 7/25/02: She wanted more cereal: “I want some out with [without] milk.”

§ 7/23/02 Emma did a somersault (kind of), and said to watch her while she did a “tatersauce”.

§ Another 7/23/02: (in the car) Rachel was making faces and opening and closing her mouth, Emma thought it was funny. I said, “Don’t you have a cute little sister?” And Emma said, “Yeah…I miss her.” I said, “She’s sitting right beside you!” And she said, “No…I missed her when she was in your tummy!”

§ 7/12/02: My friend Angela was over with her daughter Sarah. Emma and Sarah were playing by Rachel’s saucer with her in it – I saw Emma wave Sarah away – when I told Em to be nice and share, she said, “She was trying to take my bottom off!” (or "taking my bottom off") … we laughed so hard. She had her swimsuit on, so we figured maybe Sarah pulled on it or even just touched it?? It was so funny.

§ After leaving a friend’s house or somewhere she’s been playing with friends or grandparents, Emma says “Mama, I didn’t have very much fun!” Translation: I didn’t have enough fun. (The first time we heard her say that it took us a little while to understand what she meant, but we got it after she would say something else like "I need to have more fun".)

§ In the car, just getting off the blue bridge toward Kennewick:
Emma: Mama, where are we? Are we on the bridge?
Mama: We just got off the big bridge, and now we’re on a little bridge.
Emma: Oh, is it a little baby bridge? Can I hold her?

§ Parting Emma’s hair for ponytails (pigtails) I told her I needed to make a straight line. She said, "Don’t make a line, I’m not a grocery store." (NO LIES!! She really said this)

§ After I gave her some gum – Daddy was getting her out of the car for church and she says “Daddy, I got some gum!! I’m so yucky!!” (lucky, l’s = y’s)
p.s. we *still* say this, all the time. "I'm so yucky."

§ After she was tucked in to bed one night she came back out in the hallway and asked me to “give her a favorite”. I told her to get back in bed and she said, “No, will you give me a FAVORITE”. So I realized she meant ‘do her a favor’ – so she said, "Yeah, Mama, give me a favor – get me a drink of water.”

§ While driving on the freeway on a very windy day: “Stop driving crazy, Mama. I’m trying to read.”

§ Other times Emma used to be concerned that we would "fall off the road" while we were driving places. "Mama, don't fall off the road!" I'm not sure where she got this, or maybe she remembered a time when we were on a mountain road on a hill, so there was the possibility of "falling off"? Funny.

§ Emma, when told she needed to take some medicine: "I just like the grape kind. I don’t like the icky kind, it’s gross and dangerous.”

Overheard...

2008-10-01T15:04:00.004-07:00

...in the grocery store:

"If Luke Skywalker's new fake hand looks just like a normal hand, with skin and everything, what's the point of always wearing a glove over it?"

Good question.

...on the radio, quoting a campaign sign seen somewhere in the US:

"Vote for Jesus...All of His Campaign Promises will be Kept."

He's got my vote.

Out of the mouths of babes...

2008-09-02T21:56:00.002-07:00

We went to Seaside, OR last month for a vacation - it was a wonderful weekend. Brian had a slow week at work and took a few days off, and we met my parents and stayed at a local motel with a room right on the beach. It was really nice! The weather wasn't super warm, but wasn't bad either. I will post some pictures - I just haven't gotten a chance to go through them yet. Yeah, I'm slow. Sue me.

We were walking around the shops one of the days and stopped in at "The Man Store". They had lots of guy stuff - hats, knives, t shirts with slogans, you know, "man" stuff. Whatever that is.
So we're looking around, reading t shirts, and Rachel decided to read one too. It was actually the highlight of my vacation.

Just imagine my cute little 6 year old, reading the shirt slowly out loud, in her pleasant, not-too-loud-but-clearly-confident voice, without any sign of hesitation:

"Some see the glass as half empty, others see the glass as half full.
I just wonder who the hell is drinking my beer."

Yep.
That's my girl.

My Shiny House

2008-07-19T00:16:00.018-07:00

As promised (read below to see the earlier posts where I promised pictures...) here are pictures of my bright shiny sparkling spotless house. We have cleaned, de-cluttered (we have a bunch of our things in storage, we knew we needed more space, but wow...), painted almost every room, and now our house is ready to sell. I took a bunch of pictures today, partly for my ad and partly to show my mom and sisters, who probably won't be able to visit to actually SEE this wonder. I'm praying that this house will sell quick enough that they won't have the chance, even though I want them to see how awesome it looks. We really had accumulated a bunch of stuff over the years. I had many useful "creative storage solutions" but it really all boiled down to clutter! So we cleared out stuff and are ready to show someone how awesome this house actually can be. I'm adding the picture of the front of the house, and also of "The Great Wall of Pasco", since it looks so good! I will miss my wall.
I "panoramanized" (that's my own made-up word) a bunch of pictures so you can get a view of the whole thing. Most of them turned out really good. You can tell that some parts are a bit stretched out, but you get the idea here.
So Mom, Tan, and Tash, I want to hear how you like my pictures and our rooms!!
And if anyone else has any words, let me hear them! By the way, if you know of anyone who wants to buy a house, please let them know that this little number is for sale!!
(Click here to see my ad on Craigslist)

Our cute little house:

The Great Wall of Pasco:

My Awesome Kitchen:

The Living Room, from several angles:

Emma's room:

and her reading corner:
Rachel's room:

And her reading corner:

Our room:

Late Nights

2008-07-19T00:03:00.003-07:00

You know, it's usually very late at night when I update my blog. Why, you ask? Well, it's because once Brian and the Trolls go to bed, it's party time for me. I can get stuff done with no interruptions! I can play my Lego Indiana Jones X-box game, and then after relaxing with no one asking if they can play with me, I put away the game and do dishes, laundry, and update stuff on the computer. This is how it is with me. I just keep finding more things that I can do and then I end up staying up late. again. The nice thing is that I can usually sleep in, at least for now. I'm not working "in the office" at the moment, since we're getting our house ready to sell. So I'm doing some work from home, while juggling the house stuff, taking the girls to their swimming lessons, and running errands. So again it's late at night and I'm doing things other than sleeping. It usually catches up with me by Saturday morning, when there's no swimming lessons, and I can sleep in even more. But for some reason, I usually get woken up by a troll asking for pancakes or by the neighbor mowing the lawn (not ours, unfortunately), or by a phone call from someone who has no idea that they're disturbing my slumber on a Saturday morning. It's pulling teeth to get this pancake-lover out of bed on a weekday, but on Saturday, she's up bright and early! WHAT is UP with THAT?? I guess it's my own fault for not just going to bed when I know I should. So I suppose I should get to bed, but I really want to get these pictures on my blog so my mom can look at them! They are of my house all shiny and spotless for my house-selling ad. So I will post them and THEN go to bed. So my little troll can wake me up at the crack of dawn (ok, usually more like 9:30) for pancakes.
Yum yum.

Another Pause

2008-07-18T23:58:00.002-07:00

Yeah. It's been a while. Again. This is what happens in Life. I get all motivated and add a bunch of blog entries with current pictures, and then I drop the ball again. But I figure that most people honestly are caught up with their own lives, when it all comes down, so it's really not that big of an issue. I suppose if I was all famous and everyone wanted to know me and see my pictures and all that stuff, I'd update this thing more often. But then again, if I was that famous and everyone wanted to know me all that much, I'd probably have someone hired to do this FOR me. Yeah. That's gonna happen. Real soon. I just know it.
In the meantime, I'll just go ahead and add some more pictures. Yeeeeaaaaahhhhh.

Then we'll see what happens.

Slinky the Birthday Snake

2008-05-19T22:38:00.000-07:00

Emma got the "ultimate" birthday gift...at least for her. Check it out...

Don't open your eyes....

"Daddy, what is it?" (seriously, she asked...)
...really?WOW!
Daddy, this is the best present ever!
Nice snake. (Although I'm not sure everyone else agreed...)

Time for Em to hold him (her?)...

Showing Slinky off to everyone!
We put the terrarium in her room...
Slinky seems to like it...
I love this picture, I got the tongue!
Slinky's about 1.5 feet long or so - probably pushing 2. He (she? we just call him 'he') is a Ball Python...they can grow to 4-5 feet, over a lifetime of 20-30 years.
Emma's new lava lamp in the background - she says he likes it.

So if any of you want to come over and see our new "family member", feel free! We have had several visitors already to see him!

A Scenic Drive

2008-05-07T15:02:00.006-07:00

After the day of Salamander Hunting, Picture Taking, and other various and assorted activities, we took a drive down the property, to see some of the things that my dad has been doing with the place - fences here, new roads there, new trees planted, all those kinds of things. So come driving with us!

"We're going through THERE?!?"
Shooting the gap...
Yep, that's close!

I think floodwater created that little canyon...

The end of the (fence) line...
Rachel's turn to drive

Emma's turn now!
Here we go shooting the gap again...the old man's still got it!

And who doesn't like to relax and read a good book after a scenic drive?

The Parker Estate

2008-05-07T14:51:00.009-07:00

I took these pictures before going on the Great Salamander Hunt...this place is beautiful. It's changed a lot from when I grew up, but it's still awesome.

Dad's Log Truck...

The Skidder...
Pumphouse and garden down to the left, by my grampa's old International truck

The pond, just below Parker Park where Tanya got married

The sunshine is where the "new" property starts

We got cows...

Yay, swimming.

And the loader that I used to run for my dad out logging one summer. It's still fun to deck logs and even help loading trucks...

Mom! Flowers For You!

2008-05-07T14:09:00.003-07:00

These pictures are especially for my mom - On our drive on the property we took off looking for bleeding hearts - we found them, and others. Mom, I'll expect you to correct me if I get the names wrong...I'm not as practiced up as I used to be.

Hound's Tongue

Here's the Bleeding Heart we found; not quite in bloom yet
Lamb's Tongue
A cool view of the little lily
The Hound's Tongue again, Mom picked some
And this is some more hiding in the brush in Harry & Muriel Park.
I hope I got the names right...I'll correct them if I made any mistakes. ;)

Bummers

2008-05-07T14:04:00.002-07:00

The girls got to feed the bummer lambs, although they were starting to wean themselves from the bottles so didn't want to eat much; therefore I only have a couple pictures. But this is another thing from my childhood that they get to experience once in a while. I love that they get to do these things!!

The Great Salamander Hunt

2008-05-07T13:50:00.004-07:00

Whenever we go to the Parker Estate, there is a hunt for some sort of creature. Sometimes snakes, sometimes frogs, but this time it was salamanders. Growing up, we played with salamanders and frogs all the time. So the girls and I, camera in hand, went for a walk!

Emma found one! Actually she had two, Frank and Lisa. OK, well, I caught them for her. But who's keeping track?
And also one for Rachel...meet Abigail the salamander.
Look, Mama!
SO happy to have creatures!!

As always, Molly wants to play
Walking up to the house to show everyone our catch

Time to set them free again...

Bye bye! Nice knowing ya! (Now go wash your hands!)

Daffodils and English Daisies

2008-05-07T12:59:00.004-07:00

After the salamander hunt, we decided to take some pictures with the daffodils. Rachel got a little bored and also didn't want to be around any bees; but after daffodils Emma and I went to the daisies and took more pictures.

And this is my favorite picture of the photo shoot:

Stacking Cups Show

2008-05-07T12:44:00.005-07:00

OK, so I got the girls some Speed Stacks a while back, and they created a "show" to the High School Musical song "Get'cha Head in the Game". It's really quite ingenious. I actually put video of it on my Myspace page; I might give a shot at putting video on this blog too so you non-myspace people can see it too. Anyway, they did the show for Grama and Grampa when we visited.

And let us not forget the audience:

Oregon Coast Aquarium - Part One

2008-05-07T12:14:00.007-07:00

We visited my parents in April; took a trip to Newport for a day. It was a beautiful day and we went to the Aquarium over there as well as a couple other side trips. Thanks Mom and Dad for the fun trip! Brian drove over there; Molly was making sure he was driving in the right lane.

Grampa sat in back with the girlies!
Tanya and Molly

I told Rachel to "look scared!" It looks a little more like happy, but whatever.
Love this...
These tube-type hallways were awesome. Fish swimming over and all around you!

Here's Rachel, looking scared again...

Oregon Coast Aquarium - Part Two

2008-05-07T12:07:00.006-07:00

More pictures from the Aquarium.

The girls playing with the anemones with Daddy (I think he's playing too) and Grama and Aunt Tanya in the little tidepool area.

I told Mom and Tanya to "look scared!" so they posed for me.

There were some huge murals on the walls in places so the girls each picked one to pose by. Rachel has another "look scared!" look!

I love my family.

After the Aquarium...

2008-05-07T09:45:00.006-07:00

After visiting the Oregon Coast Aquarium, we went to eat lunch at Mo's and then went down to the beach for a little bit. It was a gorgeous day, with wind of course, but beautiful nonetheless.

The girls showing off their flattened pennies from the machine at the aquarium

At Mo's - Rachel was having a burping contest...by herself I think.Finally on the beach! Lean into the wind!
Me and the skimboard - I tried a few times but Brian wimped out.
Molly's going for the frisbee!! Good girl.

We took a quick potty break at a craft warehouse - this guy was in there and Rachel had to pose, of course...

And when we got home we bowled on the Wii - We found out that Dad can actually multi-task!

An impending update...I promise

2008-05-06T22:57:00.004-07:00

Dude. I'm so lame. I never update this, and I know there are people looking for updated pictures. Sorry everyone! I'm going to try to update this site more often; I updated it a little bit so I'm hoping that it will be a bit easier to update now. We'll see; but I will make it a priority, nonetheless. I have some fantastic pictures from April when we visited my parents' place, I've got some neat pictures that are some of my absolute favorites that I simply haven't taken time to post. So I am going to do it! Soon! I hope to take some time tomorrow and just do it.

Here's hoping!

Father-Daughter Ball

2008-03-05T08:54:00.005-08:00

I know, I'm totally behind. I was harassed by a friend the other day that I never update my blog! So here are pictures from the Ball the other night. The girls had a great time getting dressed up. They both bought new earrings and a tiara for the event, and I did their hair for them. They had fun with Daddy, although the place was so packed with people I think they were a little overwhelmed. All in all, they had a good time. Enjoy the pictures of my two little Princesses (oh, and my Prince Charming too).

Alaska Cruise

2007-12-04T23:42:00.003-08:00

Here are some pictures from our Alaska Cruise in August. We stayed at my sister's house the night before we left, and drove to Seattle where we boarded our ship, the Golden Princess. It was an awesome vacation. It was to celebrate my parents' 40th Anniversary.

Our room was above that "12" lifeboat sign The view from the ship My Dad My mom with her Anniversary present (necklace) on

Zoo Trip with Tasha

2007-09-24T18:21:00.000-07:00

We took a trip to Tacoma in July. Our main purpose was for Brian to have Lasik eye surgery in Renton, but we stayed with my sister Tasha. We stayed for a visit and took a trip to the zoo. It's a really good zoo. If you're ever in Tacoma, you should go.

These seahorses are somewhere around an inch long (or less):

Sumatran Tiger:

The biggest walrus in this aquarium weighs over 3000 pounds. Wow!smiling with the puffins:
Emma's favorite...snakes!