A Picture's Worth...

10 MORE reasons to love that Pops!

1. Pops left for work. I walked into my bedroom to find a hereford cow hide waiting to surprise me. I have been wanting one for nearly 2 years now. Patience has paid off! I LOVE IT! Uh, and by the way, for those of you who don't know... my living room, kitchen, dining room, 1/2 bath and loft are all decorated in a cowboy/cowgirl/rodeo theme of sorts... It is sort of understated, but that is the "look." Our Master Bedroom is working its way to the same look... slowly, but surely!
2. Pops bought me an SUV. Yep. I am no longer a minivan baseball mom! If I COULD cartwheel, I would. (I'll post photos later!)
3. Pops has told me that we need that SUV so that we can tow our future cattle and horses... Oh, my goodness! Those dreams will some day really come true... We've been talking about all that for nearly 14 years. (Yep, we dated for nearly 4 whole years!) He's gonna have to get a big truck if we are really gonna haul things, though... an SUV can't tow a gooseneck or fifth-wheel trailer. Hmmm, maybe he just wants a pick-up!
4. Pops writes great funny little poems filled with cryptic clues of fun to come.
5. Pops is taking me to dinner at 7 o'clock at some place on "glass rock." I have my suspicions as to where that is.  But, I can't be certain.
   
6. Pops says in his poem that he will help me pick out some "bling" and I thought the bling was the SUV! Nope!! We will find some rocks he says!!!
7. Pops makes me laugh until I hurt. He's a funny guy. I am looking forward to an evening of laughs and fun.
8. Pops seems to really love surprising AND spoiling me! :)
9. Pops is really GOOD at that surprising and spoiling bit.
10. Pops is the best. He's just the best. 

Watch out... the next time you talk with me, I may be totally ROTTEN!

10 years of wedded bliss... or something like that

Today is Pops and my 10th Wedding Anniversary! So, I would like to share ten things that I love about Pops, our marriage, or maybe just things I like a whole lot!

1. Pops loves me even in that first hour after I wake up in the morning. It isn't a fun time, I know. It takes TIME for me to go from asleep to awake. Don't expect that I will be cheerful while getting there. But, he loves me anyway - with ALL of my weird little quirks. In fact, I am anticipating a "Roses are Red, Violets aren't Blue" poem highlighting all of my year's quirks... 
   
2. Pops is adventurous. He encourages me and my homebody self to get out of the house with the fam to go do fun (and sometimes new) things.
   
3. Pops is uber-organized and a wee bit anal, but that means he pushes me to get organized and at least stay that way for several days at a time!
   
4. Pops is a hard-worker and an amazing provider for our family.
   
5. Pops is a master griller. I love me a steak and he knows how to grill it. Not quite medium-rare, not quite medium. Just, perfect.
   
6. Pops is a great dad to our treekids and we complement each other on what he does well and what I do well.
   
7. Pops  can back a car down the driveway with only one finger, an eye patch on, the sun glaring into the other good eye and a neck brace on. Who needs to turn and look behind you? That vehicle has three mirrors for pete's sake. It sure helps when you are stuck somewhere. Good job, "Mater"!
8. Pops helps with the mundane chores of running a house and can keep laundry moving like no one's business.
9. Pops keeps the truly important things in life in front of the things that the rest of the world says are important. His perspective on life is remarkable.
10. Pops is my partner in life and my best friend.

I love you, Pops! Happy 10th Anniversary! Now, hurry up with your hard-working stuff, today!

We have the kids all scheduled to go and stay the night with some friends. They are excited to go have a fun sleep over and we are off to ... I don't know. Pops won't tell. So, I can't tell, either. But, we are off for 24 hours or so of alone time!

Big Day for Blossom!

Playschool at the YMCA is officially over for Blossom. She graduated with her class and was honored with the "Quietest Student" award. HUH? This is our child who has no volume control? This is the one who seems to yell you something (Not a typo. She does not tell people things. She yells people what she knows.) when you are sitting three inches away! Apparently, she is not vying for attention there, or she is a little out of her element and stays relatively shy most of the time she is at Playschool.

Either way, she is a gem and is excited to be getting "big." She said she was happy to be done with Playschool because now she can do all the things that Bud and Branch are doing! Yep, she'll be joining the family tree-school for Pre-K work this year!

Congratulations, Blossom, on your big day!

Ihop, U-hop, we all hop for Ihop!

There is an Ihop in our area. When we drive by, the kids always say, "Let's go to Ihop!!" One day I asked, "What's so great about Ihop?" I was informed that their funny face pancakes are great and they wanted to stop and have one. The especially liked the whipped cream squirted on top.

We have taken them to Ihop less than the fingers on my right hand (not including the thumb). How they remember such things, I will never know. But, what I remember about going to Ihop with the kids is that we took them on a "kids eat free" night and were thinking how we were so smart. Apparently, Ihop is pretty smart, too. Yes, the kids got their pancake free. BUT, their small kid milk was over $2 each.  We spent over $6 on less than 16 ounces of milk. 

When I learned what was so great about Ihop, I stepped up to the plate and made our very own funny face pancakes - which the kids loved! I haven't heard the "Let's go to Ihop" rant for some time. Now they say, "There's Ihop!" Maybe I've cured them of the desire for pricey pancakes by having a bit of whipped cream at home!

Water park in the "dirt yard"

It has been hot around these parts!

To cool off, the treekids like to run through the sprinkler and eat those nasty frozen flavored-sugar water popsicles in a tube.

Good times, being a kid!

Well, That STINKS!

We had a pretty nice Memorial Day weekend. We went to a park and grilled out for supper Sunday evening. The park was great. The brats were great. The weather was great. The company was... 

WHO invited this guy?!?!?!?!!!!

They are so cute. But, why do they have to make such a BIG stink!!

Things are Growing!!!

I've been meaning to get back outside to take a picture of the tiny little sprigs of green poking up through the dirt in our homemade container garden. But, it appears as though I have missed the sprigs and have instead some pretty hardy plants!

Each little gardener planted one container and they are each so proud of the green popping up in the dirt! Bud planted these two rows of lettuce. I don't recall which varieties they are... but I can't wait for a big leafy salad!

Branch planted beets, carrots and radishes! She can hardly wait for those beets to be ready for me to pickle!

Blossom planted a collection of herbs and a row of onions. I think those onions were Pops' pick! I can't imagine that it was Blossom!!

And for those of you who were curious about the planter boxes... They are made of cedar fence boards. It is about the cheapest way we could find to make these boxes out of cedar. They are untreated fence boards from Lowes - out on the sidewalk area. We bought eight or ten, I think. Then Pops cut them down to a manageable size. Since we figured that each of our treekids would enjoy tending their own box, we made sure to make at least three boxes out of the wood we bought. The bottom is raised up with scrap lumber and there are supports on the inside of the box that are also scrap lumber. I believe that they are pine 1x1 strips. But, I could be wrong about that! Then he drilled some holes in the bottom to allow a bit of drainage.  The treekids filled the bottom layer of each box with rocks. Then, the planters were filled with the "right" mix of soil. Uh, yea... I wasn't around for that part. But, I do know that Pops bought what the garden center worker at Lowe's recommended for container gardens (I think that it was a mix of two different varieties of potting/garden soil). 

Each box was constructed differently, so measurements and such are sort of irrelevant! Just get some cedar fence boards, some scrap lumber, some wood screws, a saw and a drill and you are set! Get to work and get your boxes made before you don't have enough time to get some veggies planted in them!!!

Swing Into Action

Why is swinging so much fun?? I love to swing and all the treekids love to swing.

It is my favorite thing at the park. Is it your favorite, too?

Swing, swing, swing... we love to swing.

I forgot

to share our day of fun from Mother's Day! 

There are lots of hiking trails in our area and there are also plenty of waterfalls at the end of those trails! We have lived here for a year and ten months and have said several times that we want to go hiking and see the waterfalls, but we never make the time to do it. So, I said that is what I wanted to go and do for Mother's Day. We packed a picnic lunch and headed out after church on Mother's Day. 

I am not much of a "hiker" but I really enjoyed myself and it seems as though the family did, too. We found all sorts of fun things to look at besides the prize/waterfalls at the end of the trail.

Something must be up there...

Some of the trees were soooooo tall that we stood and looked in wonderment. I sure would like one of those big ol' trees in MY yard!!

Sometimes looking down would show us an interesting tid-bit. Bud and Branch are still talking about this "GIANT Slug"!!

There was a swarm of butterflies (Is it a swarm or is swarm reserved for bees or pesky insects?) on the trail and they just didn't want to be caught!

But, I was patient and one landed on a leaf. I wish that it would have opened its wings for you to see its lavender coloring... gorgeous. 

The flowering plants were beautiful, too.

But, the prize... a large waterfall was spectacular.

The hike was only about a mile round trip. But, the first half seemed much longer than a half mile, since it was a lot of uphill climbing!

It was a fun day. We saw 4 different waterfalls, with this one being the most spectacular with its large drop. We'll go again another day to see more of the falls that are scattered about. It was a beautiful and fun day and a great way to spend it with Pops and the treekids for a wonderful Mother's Day.

And next time, I will NOT wear a new pair of shoes...

Bumm Boom Boom Bumm Bumm Boom

Remember the other day when I wrote about Branch playing Tball and how I said something about how she pays attention and knows what is going on? I think that today I will share a bit of juxtaposition with you. 

Bud, while a great lover of the game of baseball, sometimes has the attention span of a hummingbird. Hmmm. What I am trying to say is that he can hit the ball far into the outfield. He runs fast from base to base. He can throw and catch the ball. He is a versatile ball player. But, there are times. There are moments when I REALLY wonder what is going on upstairs in that big ol' brain of his. 

Here, I'll let the pictures explain me better. Can any of you translate this behavior?

Uh, oh... I've been spotted!!

But, if you wait long enough (and by that, I mean somewhere in the vicinity of 2 or 3 minutes)... he'll be back to his old tricks!!

I guess he just dances to his own drum beat!!

The sun DID come out!

A few hours after I was moaning and groaning about the fog, it all rolled out to sea and we had some time to explore at low tide! We love low tide. 

For those landlocked friends and family of ours, low tide is the perfect time to explore the coast hunting and searching for sea life in tide pools! 

When the tide goes out, many rocks are exposed and these rocks have many dips and wells that some of the sea life get "stuck in" and stay put while waiting for the tide to come back in!

Some of us like going out on the rocks better than others. Branch is not fond of getting wet. Well, she doesn't like to get her clothes wet, anyway. So, she has to feel pretty sure that a wave won't come over a rock to go out to explore it. OR Pops had better be close to lift her up and out of the way! 

Bud and Blossom don't mind... they are willing to deal with it and strip the wet stuff off after they are done having fun!

Climbing, however, seems to be an all-family sport. I, too, like to climb these kinds of rocks. BUT, this time I was taking pictures (duh), keeping the dog on her leash, holding Pops' coffee cup, and trying to keep track of the time as we were somewhat limited for our excursion.

THE KEYHOLE!!! Have you heard my treekids talk about the keyhole? Bud LOVES the keyhole. That is their own name for this area of the beach. You can only reach it when it is low tide. At high tide, the water would cover the keyhole completely!

So, when the tide is low and we have the opportunity... we love to go through the keyhole! What's on the other side that is so worth getting through that keyhole? Hmmm...

LOTS of opportunity for tidepooling!! You can move from rock to rock and find all sorts of amazing things. 

And then we checked our watches and said, "HOLY COW! Where does the time go? We have to get going!" I am sure glad the sun came out and we had some great exploring time!