The tough part

The tough part of blog365, and posting every single day, is that you don't always feel like it. You don't always have things you want to share with the world, and you don't feel like spreading your mundane mumbo jumbo hither and yon.

However, I commited and so far I remain committed. I don't have any cute pictures or funny things to report on today...we just got back from buying flowers and planting two little primroses on the balcony (pink and purple of course). We are cooking pizza from Papa Murphys (I love you Papa Murphy!).

Tonight, Ashley and I are possibly heading down to Starbucks at 8:00 to meet up with Jonathan (our favorite barista) for a sip-n-stitch. Jonathan crochets, Ashley knits, and I'll embroider.

That's it....aren't you glad I shared? :)

We're fine...no damage

Someone posted an update on facebook saying we'd had an earthquake early this morning.

I was clueless.

When I told Grant about it he said yes, he thought he felt something and wondered about it but thought maybe it was me rolling around on the otherside of the bed or something. Uh not sure how I feel about that! (was that my wife or an earthquake, I can't tell) LOL

Anyway, no damage at all for our area and I haven't heard of any elsewhere either. I didn't think to report on that until my Mom called from Minnesota to ask if we were ok.

Yep! We're fine, just got back from Starbucks! Hehe.

Heels

Do you eat bread heels? I do. The rest of my family, does not. This is what I found the other morning when I went to make toast...three bread bags, each with one heel sitting in the bottom of it.

I am obviously struggling for blog material tonight :) I'm tired, but no work tomorrow so maybe I can make a more interesting post! We're kicking around the idea of going to the zoo again (we have a membership so it's free entertainment).

Let me know if there is anything you want to see me blog about!

A girl and her cat

I'm ever so thankful to the woman who rescued Genevive our cat, and posted the add on Craigslist stating that this cat needed to go to a home with a little girl. Was she ever right!

Genevive is Rebekah's shadow as you can see in the pictures above. It's so cute to see her just patiently watching whatever Rebekah is doing and every night when we tuck Bekah in...there is her cat. Thank you Beth, Genevive has a very happy owner :)

Bekah at the pool

Daddy bought Rebekah a new life jacket. In one trip to the pool we went from a clinging-for-dear-life toddler to a you-can-stay-over-there independent little girl. Progress is fun to watch!

Felt Food

This is addictive, I keep seeing things I want to make and I need to start a list of the colors of felt I want to buy! This morning spurred on by a conversation with Rae Ann from http://beanandsprout.blogspot.com/ I decided to tackle the felt food.




















As soon as I made the bacon and eggs Bekah was cooking up a storm. Since then she's been asking for all sorts of things... ponatos (potatoes), broccoli, cheeseburgers, pickles. Yikes, I don't know HOW I'll do broccoli.



Anyway, this is what I've got so far and once I get the method perfected I'll probably make some for Wooden Nichols. It does my heart good to see kids play with these kinds of toys.

How I feel today...

I still have a long ways to go before my fabric organizing is as cool as I want it to be, but I think I have a pretty good handle on where to find stuff now. There is some overflow into the bedroom closet but it's labled and organized (and in very unattractive boxes, hence the closet). Now could someone please find me a huge chunk of time to sew? :)

Quick post

Grant is gone for a couple of hours and I'm home with the kids who are demanding attention...

SO! Quick post it is. Tonight you get to see more of my sewing mess. The picture with all of the plastic bags is that of the strips I bought from work. It doesn't look that impressive on my livingroom floor. I should have taken a picture when it was heaped in the sportage.

Tomorrow I'll post pictures of the organization.

Sewing area

I've been trying to work on organizing my sewing area ever since the truck load of fabric came in (yes, I know I still owe you pictures of that), the first two pictures are before and the last one is after...hopefully that is self explanatory though. Ha!

Notice the addition of the shelf above my design wall (thanks honey!) and the ribbon spool shelf next to the design wall. Both have helped organizing immensely.

I am planning on sharing more fabric pictures in tomorrows post so stay tuned :)

Oh! And yes, that is Genevive's favorite place to sit if not on Bekah's bed or our chairs.

Rules song

A little song about rules that Rebekah made up. She's heard these things before I guess!

During the day while I'm at work, Daddy tries to get the wee one outdoors for exercise. Sometimes I get photo updates at the office which really makes my day!

You would normaly get these pictures arranged and with nice captions, but no. Blogger is being a complete pain in the arse and will not let me move my pictures around on the screen, I've tried this post twice and can't get it to work....so since I am on a deadline you get it like it is! Sorry :)

Ocean Shores

Yesterday (wow was it really just yesterday?) we decided to make an overnight trip to the Ocean. Thinking we'd try something different than Ocean Shores this time, we headed for Grayland and Westport.

Treasures!

The beach at Grayland provided a plethora of sand dollar collecting, but not so much in the way of lodging. Westport, not so much either. We thought about staying in Aberdeen but really wanted to wake up next to the ocean.

Ashley getting a neck massage in the hotel room

So we headed for our old faithful Comfort Inn in Ocean Shores (rockin biscuits and gravy for breakfast and a 24 hr starbucks).

Getting ready to launch the kite.

Rebekah got to fly her kite this morning and Ashley and I did a little beach combing, not much to comb though other than garbage. I collected a whole trash bag of recyclable garbage before we left. That just makes me SAD!

Ashley making art in the sand.

For unknown reasons, Rebekah was ready to go home and so here we are, back to the grind and I am hoping to sleep tonight since I have to work in the morning. Wow...weekends don't last like they should.

And technically I posted 3 times on Rebekah's birthday so I'm still one post ahead of schedule for blog365!

Seventeen days and counting...

This blog 365 thing is pretty cool. I don't feel like I have much to offer every single day, but maybe daily blogging gives a better representation of our overall life, rather than just highlights.

I knew this picture was on my computer but didn't realize I had to go back to Nov of 2008 to find it!!! Yeah, I took a picture because Ashley was doing laundry without being told!!!! :)

And this? Is what happens when a 4 yr old has an (almost) 16 yr old sister.

I love these kids.

Who's going?

I just found out that the nations largest sewing show happens less than 20 miles from my house.

http://www.sewexpo.com/index.html That's the link. A couple of girls from work and I are going, I am so sew excited!

Here's a bonus picture that has nothing to do with this post. :)

Picture taken by Daddy earlier this week at the park.

Genevive

Genevive was a good kitty (ahem) and Santa brought her a laser pointer for Christmas. She doesn't always play with it but when she does it amuses me beyond reason, I'm not sure why :) Silly kitty!

Peace and Calming

I wish we would have found this oil about 3 years ago! Recently a friend at work introduced me to Young Living essential oils, shortly thereafter Grant and I signed up as distributors. We don't sell it, we just buy a lot of it!

Every night we put the peace and calming blend on Rebekah's feet, and wrists. She loves it! It used to take anywhere from one to two hours to get her to sleep at night, since the day we started using peace and calming it's never taken more than 15 minutes for her to fall asleep. Grant and I were both shocked. I made this little video to show what she does with her oil every single night.

Now if I could get the teenager interested :)

Kids playing with the camera

I'm super tired after work tonight and headed out to supper soon, so you get these pictures that were already uploaded on the computer for tonights post.

Our apartment complex offers a supper on the second Tuesday of the month and so tonight it's nachos and dessert night. I'm just happy I don't have to cook!

Bekah's dictionary

Jimmer Bread Man = Gingerbread man



Stellascope = telescope (and also refers to binoculars)



Croons = prunes



fabLEEous = fabulous



merBaid = mermaid


ponato = potato

Zoo trip!

We bought Rebekah a membership to the Point Defiance Zoo for her birthday. Yesterday was our first trip of the year down there. It was a bit chilly and Rebekah wore out pretty fast so we were only there about 2 1/2 hours.

Do you think I took any pictures of animals? Noooooo. These are the 3 lonely shots of Rebekah outside at the zoo.

But in the aquarium part of the zoo is the dscovery center where you can touch starfish, sea urchins, crabs...and and AND (!) the most exciting thing ever! You can color. Yeah, with crayons! Crayons and paper just like you have at home where you won't use them for more than 5 minutes! But here? At the zoo? While Mom and Dad wait patiently? Yes, 45 minutes of coloring thank you very much.

Discovery center worker to Rebekah:

Do you want to trace this template of a star fish and color it?

Rebekah: Nah

end of story :)

Flooding

It seems like people across the U.S. have heard about our flooding here in Washington state.

We haven't had any negative effects but you can see the river outside of our complex is barely holding it's banks, thankfully we've had no rain for a couple of days so it should start going down soon.

We went to the zoo today, I'll try to get those pictures off of the camera and uploaded tomorrow. Right now I'm going back to sorting and organizing fabric.

Oh! And yes, there will be more give aways in the near future. I think it was a lot of fun and will enjoy thinking up different prizes!

Winning entries incase you missed them.

Yesterday was so busy and I wanted to make sure that the give away got it's proper attention.

The contest was just a random drawing, but Rory won and I thought his entry deserved a special posting so here it is...words from our winner:

Rory's New Year's Resolutions The birth of a new year allows us to put the old one to rest, but as we do so, it is right to reflect back and to see what we can improve on. It is a human condition to try to be better, to strive for something more out of life, for most of us, so we look inside ourselves at the birth of a new year, where the next 365 days are a clean slate,a chance to write something new on the chalkboard of life, to create new memories, ones we will cherish, and yet maybe improve ourselves along the way, but enough of my philosophy...

Work hard at my new job, to improve our life and hopefully reduce our bills, also to enjoy the little things even more, spend more time with my Grand Kids, take more horseback rides and play golf when I can...take better care of my garden, and last of all tell my wife I love her everyday! (which I do already,so maybe more often..)

Now that is a pretty darn good entry. There is another entry that you might not have seen that I was really impressed with, and I don't think it has anything to do with me being biased just because the author is my Mom! Crystalie's entry:

From Ricki's Mom,

My Goals and Resolutions for 2009?

Same old story, same old line

lose more weight, get out of debt,

organize, declutter, make lists, don't forget.

These are all good, but boring and dull

so change, they must, to make life more full.

I'm going to be in the garden, my coffee in hand,

smile more to myself & reap gifts from our land.

I'm going to give out more hugs and kisses;

be better at listening and sending good wishes.

I'll spend more time counting blessings, big and small

and less time fretting over what I can't control at all.

So in the end, when 2009 is over and done

I can look back and say "I did good and had fun,

I am pleased with this year and will do it again,

good Lord willing in 2010!"

So I thought it was only fair that while Rory enjoys his gift card, Mom would have a little treat too. I know, I said they'd go out today but they'll actually go out tomorrow, I won't even bother with the list of excuses ;)

Happy Birthday Rebekah!

Happy birthday to our favorite 4 yr old little princess!

The Castle Birthday cake.

Opening the quilt from our friend "Miss Sue".

The princess and her loot.

The girls in the bathroom, birthday morning big sister fixed little sisters hair.

We Have A Winner!

The gift card will go in the mail tomorrow! Congratulations!!! :)

First pictures

You are looking at the first pictures off of Rebekah's new camera from Grandma and Grandpa.

Another post is coming after our company leaves and after we talk to Grandma and Grandpa!