This site is really neat! I just spent some time working my around it and figuring out the features. It looks like you could create a very simple/easy blog with this site, which I’m not in the market for. But, what I found cool about it is you can add favorite blog topics or websites to your Tumblr page. I’m going to see if I can work on replacing my browser’s “Favorites” folder with this site instead. My favorites get fuller every day. I forget about things I’ve added to it, even though I feel I’ve got it pretty organized, it’s still kind of a cluttered mess inside my folders.

I read about this site from a blog that I love, MotherLode. She has a tumblr site that is really beautiful filled with links — it just looks like a much easier way to find things you want to look back on or even just share with other people.

I can tag my links into categories where I’ll be able to go directly to my kitchen ideas, recipes, craft projects, etc. Plus, I love the idea of being able to look at the picture of the link I saved and be able to go right to that saved idea/site instead of weeding through a bunch of page titles that are saved to my favorites folder.

They have a one click add button too, you can find it under “Goodies”. You can add it to your favorites bar on your browser window so when you come upon a website or blog post that you want to save, you just click that link and it goes right to your tumblr page. Nifty!

I’m liking it! I found this great tutorial on how to use Tumblr, check it out! 1+1+1=1: Behind the Scenes ~ Tumblr

David and I hit the Vancouver Farmer’s Market today, knocking #14 off my Summer Bucket List. It was a gorgeous day, and it was so nice to be out in the sun. I was missing two important things: cash and my Canon! There were some neat things there that I wish I would have been able to take photos of. I ended up with just one picture, the above one taken with my cell phone camera. And, if I’d had my cash, I would have picked up some cherries and flowers for my dining room table. This was not a planned thing, we were killing time before we went and saw Knight and Day, which could have been considered #27 on the aforementioned bucket list. However, I’m holding out for something better.

Missing my girls, but they should be home on Thursday - yay!

I decided today felt like a good day to tackle #7 on my Summer Bucket List:
Go through ginormous tub of pictures and put away.

This tub made it’s way into my house from the garage about 3 months ago and has been sitting in my dining room ever since. I can hear my scrapbooking friends yelling at me now. Storing photos in a non-temperature controlled environment? In a plastic tub? In ziploc bags? I know… it’s bad. And I’m choosing to share this, so please don’t judge me. I’m usually much more responsible with pictures than this. I had always stored them nicely in albums, scrapbooks, or photo boxes. I’m not sure what happened with this tub. I think they were gathered together in here around the time we moved here.

I had fun going through all these pictures. There were some from many different time periods. Some from when I was little, to various stages of my childrens’ lives. I’m a photo freak. I take alot of pictures, to the point of it almost being a fault. Drives many of my family members nuts. But, I’m glad that I have tons of pictures. I remember going to Southern California in 2003 with my family, but do I remember McKenzie picking flowers at every hotel? Not at the front of my mind, but that picture of her doing it — takes me right back there like it was yesterday. I can remember Tanner and Katy being little and living in an apartment but do I specifically remember them painting with watercolors on the stoop outside? No, but that picture takes me back there. I’m so thankful for pictures. As my memory fades, these pictures will keep things sharp for me. I hate that things get forgotten about so easily. I’m so thankful for my mom for taking pictures as much as she did, and thankful that I’ve been able to take pictures of my babies as they’ve grown, as much as I have. Thank you.

I’ve gotten really bad about taking a TON (and I’m talking about probably 5,000 pictures per year) of digital pictures, uploading them to my favorite hosting site, and then never making prints. I am about 5 years behind. That is disgusting, isn’t it? One of these days I’ll be able to spend a small fortune and get them all printed up. The pictures I sorted through were taken through part of 2004/2005. When Kodak changed their ordering policy a few years ago, I lost ALL of our pictures from 1999-2002. Gone. It was extremely sad for me, those were Kenzie’s baby years. Some big years for my big kids also. Well going through this tub… I found SO many of those pictures I had lost online copies of. I was SO happy! Now if I can just keep my children out of them to make sure they don’t go anywhere.

In addition to what you see here, I have albums upon albums of pictures and about 6 real photo boxes filled with photos also. I wanted to get these pictures sorted without waiting to be able to buy more photo boxes, so that is why I put them in these cardboard boxes. It’s a temporary home for them, until I get more photo boxes — which will be temporary homes until I get more scrapbooks or albums. Someday. One day.

I found some fun pictures I wanted to share and since I’m too lazy to scan, I just took pictures of them instead. I’m not sure where these panoramic prints came from but aren’t they cool? They were taken at McKenzie’s 1st birthday party.

That’s Brian and David holding the pinata and Katelyn trying to hit it.
You can see many of our friends and family in the background
If you look closely you can see me with a sissabug on my lap

Here’s a group of a few of them, they are so cool!

I zoomed in on this one…
That’s Brian walking towards 3 kidlets visiting neighbor animals
Brittney, Ashlyn and my cousin’s son Travis.

I love this picture of Tanner. One thing I discovered is my husband is right… we always spent way too much on professional pictures. We have a ton that will probably never see the light of day again.

I’m not sure why but this is one of my favorite family pictures. This was taken just before Christmas of 2000. My 3 oldest kids welcomed David as their dad. We had baby McKenzie and got married. We were just starting out as a family, things seem simpler then as I look back but I know it wasn’t “simple”. It’s just nice to see everyone smiling even though someone told us all to smile at the same time — I know that was a happy time period and I just plain love family photos

I ended up finding quite a few of these little film catridges. LOTS of negatives too, which will join the rest of my collection in another photo box. It’s one of those things that I save, if for no other reason that they could be important some day.

It feels good to have that all done. That tub now holds a few scrapbook supplies and can now leave my dining room. Woohoo!

I then went back to #3 on my Summer Bucket List and started a new book: The Observatory by Emily Grason (and finished off my Cherry Garcia ice cream from last night… shhh!).

I finished The Quilter’s Apprentice I posted about yesterday. It was a good book, and apparently part of a series — but I don’t feel like it was quite good enough to put that series at the top of my must reads at the moment. I was going through my bookshelves today when The Observatory caught my eye. I’m not even sure where it came from. It’s been a quick read and something about it captivated me right away. The story focuses on twin sisters who are distant and not close at all. One sister is a single, detached, quiet librarian and the other is a wealthy artist who has 2 children. The two sisters are reunited when the one sister’s daughter dies in a terrible accident. The story doesn’t dwell on the sisters’ relationship (or lack thereof). It’s more about the quiet librarian’s life and her connections she makes as she takes care of her sister’s young son after the mother leaves, in an effort to cope with her daughter’s death. It’s compared to Bridges of Madison County, which lends itself to some predictability. However, I still found it to be a good book that made me smile

So here I am, just me (and Libby dog).
David joined the kids and Gpa in Central Oregon today.
He should be home tomorrow.
I had a few errands to run. Needed to run into town to Office Depot and Target.
Took Libby dog with me and we ran into Petco (where the pets really do go LOL)
and I let her pick some treats out of the treat bar.
We visited the birds and looked at the fish.

Forgot her leash, so she got to ride in the basket.
Libby is the easiest one of my kidlets to take shopping.
She didn’t ask for anything, didn’t whine when I said no.
Sat nicely in the basket without running off or knocking anything over.
And the final cost of my trip into Petco was .63 cents
for about 16 different types of little treats.

$1.63 later, Libby has a stocked treat jar and a 4th of July hair pretty

I ran into Office Depot and dropped off 9 empty ink cartridges, which will earn me $27 in rewards. I also bought some 100% back items, which will give me another $32 or so in rewards that are coming out in August — just in time to finish up back to school supply shopping. Great deals! The 100% back is good through tomorrow, so if you need anything, take advantage it! You can also turn in your empty cartridges through June 30th to make sure they post to this quarter.

Next was a trip to Target, nothing exciting there.
Spent a gift card and got a few coupon deals.

Decided to hit Panda Express on the way home.

Delicious.

This is what my fortune read:

Which is certainly laughable. And, a little bit ironic since I’m sitting at home because I had to work all day, while my family is playing at the lake all weekend. Sniff, sniff. I want a promotion that makes it so I don’t have to work anymore. Haha!

I’m going to enjoy my quiet evening at home by finishing a book I started last summer: The Quilter’s Apprentice.

I had put it away in a beach bag and totally forgot about it. Just found it a couple days ago. It was a good read and I’m excited to finish it up. As far as the ice cream goes, that’s my treat. I have been eating Ben & Jerry’s for what seems like forever, but the earliest memory I have of it is when I would walk up to Albertsons in Hazel Dell with my friends.. we’d pull our pennies together and have enough for a tub of Phish Food or Cookie Dough and we’d eat it on our walk back home. Yum. Never in all that time have I ever tried Cherry Garcia. Yet this, in my mind, is like the original B&J flavor. It’s the one that we’d reach pass to grab something else, but it was always there.

I’m not sure why I’ve never tried it since:

1. Cherry is my absolute favorite flavor in the world.
and
2. It has a really cool name.

Tonight I decided to change it up a bit from my traditional choice and try it. FANTASTIC. I was kind of surprised this cherry flavored goodness wasn’t pink. I was a little disappointed, I have to admit! But, it was still tasty and I’m glad I finally gave in and tried it! I’ve been missing out all these years — and I will be buying it again!

That’s it from here on this quiet Friday evening. I’m turning back to my book, which is also chipping away at my Summer Bucket List (#3). I am excited to be able to read without interruptions, without having to re-read a paragraph 18 times before moving onto the next. Mama time

PS. This is my 400th post ya’ll. 400! That’s kind of a lot. Thanks for sticking with me

Kids are gone to Central Oregon with Grandpa…

David and I found ourselves with a very quiet house
which called for a date night
an at home date night… too hard to leave our beautifully quiet home

we were sitting here wishing there was a pizza delivery here
in our tiny town
when David decided he’d go pick something up for us
this little Italian restaurant in Ridgefield
(which by the way, did I note has no fast food or pizza delivery?)
called Vinnie’s Pizza.

home to yummy calzones

and cannolis (which I’d never tried before)

Ya know, those things that Buddy makes…
but yet i know they pale in comparison

it sure was delicious though.

David planted some lettuce earlier this Spring.. and we’ve been enjoying it for quite some time now. I’ve never been much of a gardener or a farmer or a food grower. The only thing I plant that is living that I have to grow, are kidlets. Ha! But… David was in an experimental crop growing mood and here we are. A little bit of lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers (which didn’t surivive, sadly, RIP), peppers… and whatever else we may plant in the future. The lettuce is the first thing to be “ready”.

From this:

To this:

Do you recognize that orange seasoning sprinkled on top of my salad? It’s called Johnny’s Salad Elegance.

It’s delicious — tastes great with ranch or an oil/vinegar based dressing. Pretty much anything. It’s just like the “icing on the cake”.

I’ve been inspired by some fellow bloggers to make a Summer Bucket List. I make a list for everything, because that’s the kind of person I am, but never thought to make a list like this. It’s been fun! I kind of went a little crazy, and maybe I won’t be able to check all of these things off my list, but it’s a reminder to enjoy some things that I forget to sometimes. I have things that are *just for me* and things that are for my *whole family* (family: did you know I signed you up for this?) I threw in a few productive projects in there also, just because maybe if these things are on a list that I’m putting out there for all to see — maybe they’ll have a better chance at getting finished!

I’m encouraging my kids to make bucket lists too, so hopefully they will.. and I will share them when they do.

1. Pick berries
2. Go for a hike
3. Read with the kids as they do the Summer Reading Program (wish they had one for adults ) *working on this 6/25*
4. Organize school supplies
5. Clean out mine and Bailey’s closets
6. Finish pond or fountain with hubs
7. Go through ginormous tub of pictures and put away Done 06/26/10
8. Finish cross stitch project
9. Make something with popsicle sticks
10. Get my van’s brakes fixed
11. Paint my kitchen
12. Get all digital pics organized and uploaded
13. Eat a tomato we grew ourselves
14. Go to Farmer’s Market *6/27/10
15. Play in the lake *7/7/10*
16. Organize my kitchen cupboards
17. Camping!
18. Learn to knit
19. Play hopscotch
20. Run through a sprinkler (without planning on it!)
21. Organize craft stuff
22. Clean up laundry room and organize
23. Make homemade ice cream
24. Start kids’ recipe/cookbooks
25. Learn a new card game and teach it to my kids
26. Go to a drive in movie
27. Date Night!

I will try not to remove anything from this list unless it’s been completed. I’d rather add to it than take away from it. I don’t believe in removing things from lists once they are written or you’ve defeated the point of the list in the first place.

Anyone watching The World Cup? I don’t normally pay much attention, but David is a fan so it’s been on our TV quite a bit lately. It’s enjoyable to watch on mute. Do the horn blowers ever take a break in unison to breathe? No…. it’s amazing how constant that horn blowing is. I don’t know what I focus on more, the horns or the soccer game? That sound plays the entire appx 90 minutes - with no hesitation! I’d almost rather listen to my 7 year old’s fairytale singing voice for 90 minutes, which becomes a form of torture after about 12 minutes. Or, how about banging pots and pans? Or, maybe the dog whining at my feet for 90 minutes? It’d be a tough call. How do people sit there at The World Cup and not pull their ears off? Maybe the key is “if you can’t beat them, join them”. Maybe that’s why everyone is blowing the dang things, because it makes the sound of hearing it easier when you are doing it yourself? Or, maybe they sell lots and lots of industrial strength ear plugs. I have no clue.. but I know I will not be complaining about a bee buzzing passed my ear anytime soon.

Did you know you can buy your very own Vuvuzela? Maybe your child’s best friend’s parents bought your child some annoying toy for their birthday and you want to return the favor? Or, maybe you just want to learn to play a cool horn?

I want to put this on record so that it doesn’t get forgotten about. We were camping over Memorial Day weekend and played Catch Phrase around the fire with all of our friends. Bailey’s up… her word is POPE JOHN PAUL. She says “it’s 3 words”. pause “The first word is the stuff that is in your orange juice”. haha PULP John Paul. hahaha!

I’m thinking about making this a regular posting category when I have something to add. My children are forever cracking me up with their silly sayings, goofy comments or tweaks on pronunciations or definitions. My memory fades so quickly… I don’t want to forget these “little” things!

Thought it would be fun to feature a couple of old pictures once a week or so. These two pictures were taken in the Spring of 2003. Bailey was a tiny baby… and just the oldest 4 kidlets are shown in both pix.

Tanner, McKenzie, Katelyn and Ashlyn on Plain Grandma’s trampoline (that is no longer there). They had so much fun with that trampoline over the years. It burned down in 2004 I believe, maybe 2005? Burned down how? No idea, but that’s how the story goes. LOL.

The 4 oldest kiddos at the zoo. I love how each of the big kids were doing something different in their own little worlds. McKenzie is just trying to keep up with the bigs. I’m not sure what Katelyn was doing but it almost looks like Tanner was dodging some sort of Matrix type punch. LOL.

…. and I’m so glad he’s “gone country”. Not sure what I was thinking but I honestly didn’t see that coming as I watched him on American Idol last year. I expect nothing but good things from him! This is his new music video. Love it!

I discovered this little gem of a recipe about 5 years ago. I’m not even sure what the original source was (I sincerely apologize to the creator!). I saved it and made it for Easter one year… seems like carrot cake is just such a traditional recipe for Spring. Is that because bunnies eat carrots and a certain special bunny visits on Easter? I’m not sure LOL. but for whatever reason, I was on a hunt for a recipe and this is what I found. I have never been big on carrot cake. After all, who wants a vegetable in their CAKE for goodness sake? But this recipe, when I omitted the nuts, turned me (and my family) into carrot cake lovers! It’s David’s favorite dessert and what he requests anytime a special dessert would be on the menu.

Bailey helped me bake it today for Father’s Day dessert.

Did you miss the link to the recipe at the top of this post? Here it is again: Best Ever Carrot Cake. Yum!