Have I Become...

A TREE HUGGER??!!??!!

Well, I wouldn't say "yes" with full conviction, but there is this one tree... at Home.

Here's our house.  I love home.  I think that there isn't any better place to be than in my own home.  Don't you feel the same way?  Your own bed, space, schedule and agenda...

Well, we had a "tree guy" come to look at our tall pine tree because it had some problems and was leaning toward the house a bit.

He told us that there was evidence of some kind of insect infestation and that the only way to get rid of them is to remove the tree before they started infesting surrounding trees.

So... our favorite outdoor feature of our home had to be removed.

I had never seen a tree being felled before this, so I took way too many pictures.

And then the top was off and we were left with a tall post.  Not the same "look" do ya think??

It didn't provide a whole lot of shade... but it did provide a little and it kept the sun out of the south facing windows in the living room.  Hmmmm....

It just isn't nearly as pretty without all the needles!  I hung many bird feeders in this tree and enjoyed sitting on the couch and seeing them come to feed.  Hummingbirds, Bluejays and Finches mostly visited our tree.

Well, our house appears a bit empty there, now.  And as far as the tree huggin'?  Absence makes the heart grow fonder, eh?  I wish I would've hugged that tree a time or two.

All Vamped Up, Ya Little Tartlet

Our Little Princess always wants to be GORGEOUS.  That is a given fact from this point on.  If you really knew her, you wouldn't need to be informed of this.  Blossom is a girly girl, through and through.  She wants to wear makeup like momma and likes to borrow Branch's lip glosses and other fun things that are in her little girl "beauty box"!!  Sometimes, Branch puts a pretty lipgloss in her purse for the day and Sissy will (of course) find her target of anything grown-up just like a heat seeking missile finds its own target.  On this particular occasion, Branch opted to leave a lovely, sparkly, blue lip gloss out and available within the reaches of Blossom.  Isn't she PRETTY!!!

WHO says that lip gloss should be worn on the lips?!?!  Why, I've seen many a major leaguer (or a minor leaguer or even a little leaguer) wear a similar "look" with some black goop smudged in the same general location under the eyes.

OH - but, wait!  The shimmer is a bit much and on her forehead.  Could the girl be any more proud of herself, though??

Hold back the cheese, kid.  I am certain that this much cheese requires some wine!!

Ah, now you are just a silly little princess, Blossom...  Remember we ALWAYS love you!!  Even when you look like a, hmmm, tart.  But, let's not make this too regular an occurrence, shall we?

You know that this fun won't last forever, don't you!  I see it in your eyes.  You know that it won't last...

Oh, my stars... the gloss has added a nice shimmer to her EARS!  This must end, child.  I know for certain that it is time to clean up and what is that?  

Oh, yes, it is the whine!!  There it is, the whine to go with the aforementioned cheese.  But, wait!!  I didn't even get photos of the best part...  So, you will have to trust me on this...  The whine turned into a full on wail as I got the warm washcloth to clean the princess up a bit.  She continued to scream and wail: 

"You're a mean mean mommy.  You no like me and I no like you.  I am not pretty anymore and you taked it away.  You're mean mean mean."

I step DOWN from my soap box...

SO - I learned that it can take around 30 to 45 minutes sometimes to reel in these big ol' salmon...  It turns out he caught a 25 pounder (and the other guys got big fish, too)!!  So, hats off to you, Pops!  Now, lets learn how that new smoker box works!!  (Or more like... you figure out how it works, work it & I'll do the taste test!!)

 I LOVE smoked baby back ribs, jerky, and good salmon!  What do you think of smoked foods??

The great debate...

So, today we didn't do any real adventures... We are all suffering from the recent pollen pop here in our yard! I barely have a voice and Bud appears to be creating enough mucous to take care of all mucus needs for his entire life. And what is it anyway with 6 year old boys and them LIKING gross stuff, anyway?!! Never mind... ICK!



Today we had the great adventure of finding ourselves at the Post Office - where all we retrieved was bills and junk. We also went Downtown for pizza tonight; we had a roast in the crock pot for our meal tonight, but it wasn't just any roast! We had a corned beef roast waiting for us. Bud wanted to know where Pops was, so I called several times to see if he'd be home for that corned beef! He was really havin' a hankerin and I didn't want to leave him "out."


Since I didn't hear from him, we headed off for pizza and decided that the roast would wait. My cell rang while we were finishing up our pizza, and we discovered that Pops was having a rough day today working and wouldn't be back yet for another two hours or so.  He had been fishing with a colleague... Hmmmm, summer salmon run on the Rogue River. I knew that was the plan... but the city girl in me thinks that there are cell towers everywhere and why in the heck couldn't a guy pick up the call... it's not like the man would have been reeling in 100 pound fish deep sea fishing or something! And how long can a guy sit in a boat and fish, anyway - uh, rhetorical, rhetorical... don't answer. I know I don't like that answer.


Anyway, he's on his way and and will have cold pizza. Since, I didn't want to enjoy that yummy goodness without him he won't be enjoying it without us... and we'll put off the roast for dinner tomorrow. NOW, is that dinner at noon or dinner in the evening... What do you call DINNER?!?!! Leave me a comment and tell me what dinner is.