Congratulations!

Nice job Ashley! She got her driver's license yesterday :) 

So happy for her!

Little Photographer

Coffee in Astoria III (favorite)

Marie Antoinette's Cupcake and Espresso Parlor

 

By far most impressive as far as decor, set in an old majestic bank building it's like walking into a ballroom.

Light above our table

The coffee and food weren't bad either! Rebekah had a lemon curd something or other cupcake, and Grant and I shared a chocolate ganache  something or other. And half way through each we traded. Yum! A splurge at $3.50 per cupcake but it was all about the atmosphere :)

Our barista was very tolerant of my picture taking.

Silverware picture for my Mom

Are you about done taking pictures, Mom?

Rebekah went to the ladies room and came out with large eyes, she crooked her finger at me and said, "you HAVE to see this". So off to the bathroom I went (camera and all)...

Bling everywhere

A fun stop, I'd highly recommend checking it out at least once. And they brew Stumptown Coffee. YUM!

Coffee in Astoria II

This one was only really picture worthy on the outside - I took no pictures on the inside.

This was not a coffee shop at all, and we never went in it but Rebekah wanted to. We walked by it the first night in town and it was closed, I snapped this picture as we were driving by the next day. Looked like a lot of Mexican import stuff - sparkly skeleton anyone?

Coffee in Astoria

This is one of the coffee shops we visited on our anniversary trips to Astoria:

Columbia River Coffee Roaster - anytime we see coffee roaster we brake :) As it turned out, this place had EXCELLENT coffee, giving even Stonehouse a run for its money (in our very humble opinion). Located right under the famous Astoria bridge.

Lots of fun stuff to look at too...

The roasters...we counted at least 3

Not entirely sure what the story is on this thing but it was cool.

My Mom taught me to cook...

which is why I can't write a recipe to save my soul. Okay, that's not true - I could write it but I would never again follow it. Why? Because this is how I cook:

I look in the fridge, there is a lot of this and that, nothing noteworthy, nothing moldy, this is good. Hmmm in the back there is that left over small bowl of quinoa and rice. Rice. Hmmmm cooked off pinto beans. Beans and rice!

Let's see, a wilted orange pepper, that should get used up. Pathetic scrap of onion in a zip lock? That needs to go. Jalepeno and garlic stuffed olives...pass...but wait, there is a lot of liquid in that jar. Probably jalepeno garlicky vinegar, that could work.

Oh lookie me with a supper plan!

Slice up orange pepper and find some green pepper to go with it. Slice up the onion scrap. Throw in a skillet with olive oil and a wad of jalepenos, also toss in some of that olive juice. Looks good. Now toss in the beans and quinoa and rice. Let it stir fry awhile. Taste.

Needs salt - no, maybe lemon. Do I really feel like cutting and juicing a lemon (no)? Ok, garlic salt it is. Taste it. Dangit, still needs lemon. Fine. Add half a lemon. While getting lemon from fridge, notice 1/4 container of left over pica de gallo. Hahaaaaa! Throw that into the skillet, why not?

What is this I spy on top of the fridge? A chip bag with some crumbs in the bottom. What kind of chips? Organic cilantro lime tortilla chips....corn is good in mexican-ish food, no? Cilantro? Lime. Yeah baby! Throw those crumbs in - waste not want not!

Okay - liquid is cooked off. Smells good! Put it in a bowl, put a few tortilla chips around it, top with a wad of guacamole and some fresh cilantro....AMAZING! I mean like really really good! Like Chipotle good!

Now how am I ever going to make that again?

Don't get me wrong, I'm thankful my Mom taught me to cook this way and she's an amazing cook. Just don't ask us for a recipe, we WILL laugh. :)

A trip to Olympia today which included Target, Costco, Trader Joes, and a hair cut....

 Look who has bangs....since she insisted on cutting them herself on more than one occasion, I suggested we just go get it done right.


 So the lady finished cutting her hair and asked if she wanted to sit under the dryer. She very politely said "no thanks". The lady asked if she was sure? It was nice and warm air and makes your curls even more wonderful. So Rebekah said, "uhm well where is it?" So the lady showed her and she decided to try it. She later told me she thought the lady was asking if she wanted to sit under a clothes dryer, which she thought was just WEIRD. Bwhahaha...anyway, you can see that all worked out fine.

And last but not least, I was instructed to please take a picture with my new horse. She spent $16 of her hard earned and saved allowance on that treasure. I guess I'll just be grateful it's not plastic :) 

A fun day with the little princess. 

VBS (finally)

 I had to get some pictures off of the camera and realized these had never been downloaded. VBS was a crazy week for me and even after I recovered I don't think I knew what hit me. LOL. Here are the few pictures I was able to snap...

                                           Day one: The theme was God's power over nature.
We made wind socks, these were the kindergarteners (probably our most well behaved class!)

First and second graders (Rebekah is second in line there), the little girl in pink next to her belongs to a lady that grew up about 5 miles down the road from Grant in Minnesota. Also you can see some of my paper mache fish swimming in the air (we were the Great Barrier Reef).

                                             Day 3 (I didn't take pictures every day) theme was God's power over our circumstances, we made prayer journals. This is a picture of the 5th grade boys finished and lined up at the door....

The girls were still at their table working frantically to finish - clearly more into this project than the boys :) 

 

The 3rd and 4th graders

 

Another shot of the 1st and 2nd graders. I guess I'm partial to this group. Ahem. Rebekah's friend Adriana, was visiting from Kent on this day, she's the 4th one from the left. And Rebekah's other best friend, Aliya is the second from the left. 

Every morning the kids lined up outside and then came in for the worship rally, and each day they had a pledge of allegiance to the United States flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible. So a different child was chosen to carry each one of these items to the front (processional) and hold it when everyone said the pledges. Rebekah asked me on Wednesday night how come she never got to do it. I said well since we get there an hour early every day (!) why don't you go ask Pastor Jim when we get there if you can hold whatever it is you want to hold?

I then promptly forgot about it, but she didn't. The next morning when we got there she took off, which I didn't think too much of, but I did kind of wonder why she was gone so long. She came running into my classroom after awhile and said "I found Pastor Jim and I get to carry the Bible today!" She was SO EXCITED.  Here they are lined up in the back of the worship rally and it happened so fast I didn't get pictures of the processional. 

 

And here she is in the front holding the Bible during the pledge. Taking her job very seriously :)

 

It was a very busy week, and CRAZY. I always gain a whole new respect for teachers after a week of VBS - but it's all good. We had approximately 60-70 kids each day and I love it when I see those kids in the community and they say "Heyyyy you were our craft teacher for VBS". And I love seeing them create, crafts is always a favorite rotation for them and I'm already planning for next year.

Space...I need it

So in the last post I wrote about how I feel like I am living half of a life and I thought I would elaborate on that a little bit (or a lot).

For the last year or so, we have been doing everything we can think of to make a move (if only part time) to Minnesota. Several times we thought we were close or on the right track and then it would be another big fat no. Time after time and circumstance after circumstance. We can not currently get financing in Minnesota due to being self employed and needing to show more income on 2 yrs worth of taxes.

In the mean time, we've been dealing with life here where we are. This house was never supposed to be a permanent housing solution, it's what we could immediately afford to get out of an expensive apartment in the city. It's barely 1000 square ft, has no garage, and we have Grant's office in here and we homeschool. There is no where for me to have a sewing area, no space for company, no space for teaching (we school on the couch), and currently a ripped up kitchen floor which means the living room is now the living room/school room/dining room/part kitchen etc. Don't get me wrong. I know I am blessed to have a home at all...but there is a nagging constant ache in my heart that says I could do so much more if I just had the space. And it won't go away.

The market here is ridiculously cheap. Some of the foreclosures (remember this is a vacation town, so lots of second homes being let go) are literally at  a small % of their original list price. Meaning you can get a $450,000 home for  $150,000.

We've come to the conclusion that we can't leave this town right now. Grant's work continues to increase here, even as he encourages them to cut back. As I mourned the loss of being able to move and help in Minnesota, I felt God saying "it's not a life sentence, it's just for right now, I need you here". Okay Lord, if you need me here I'll stay but please make a way for us to gain some space so I can function!

I don't understand loans, finances, transfers, big numbers, etc very well, but so far it is looking like we will be able to basically trade this house for a bigger place without financial burden. If this house doesn't sell, we will rent it out and deal with it that way. So far.

And when the market recovers we should be able to sell the larger place at a profit and hopefully at that point God will say yes, you can go now. This is my hope anyway. The place we looked at today has space for a combo school and craft room, an office for Grant, a garage, and a spare room. A real kitchen, and a large living room. I'm praying this is it because if it's not then I give up trying to find an answer to this space/location issue we've been fighting for so long. It's quite literally mentally exhausting.

Probably one of my favorite pictures of Rebekah, and I know, it doesn't even show her face. But I love the mud on her legs, the stick in her hand, the sunshine on her skin, and knowing her toes are resting on the mucky river rocks while she catches a tadpole. All of this offset by her jewelery and bright flowers....it's just so her.

I made a special effort this weekend to get my family outside. We live in a gorgeous state, and in my opinion we live only hours from the MOST gorgeous part of that state, yet week after week we let the house hold chores and work duties consume our weeks as well as our weekends. Many days I feel like I am living half of a life (maybe more on this another time) and I don't think there is an excuse for that.

For FOUR years, we've been saying we need to go see Hurricane Ridge (it's 3.5 hours away), finally we did. It's been at least 2 years since we visited the Quinault River and never did we stop and play in it, until today. And it was just a matter of carving out the time. Hurricane Ridge was gas money and $15 to get in, today was just gas money. I packed all of our food, we made a thermos of coffee, and enjoyed God's great outdoors. 2 full days of entertainment probably for less than it costs to take a family of four to the movies.

And more importantly, Rebekah experiences nature. She starts out apprehensive and fearful, but by the end of the day she's catching those tadpoles, she's not afraid of the flies, and that river? I can cross it myself! Building confidence, one memory at a time.

Sometimes I find it real hard to take the high road. I won't give the door knob the pleasure of linking to his post, but if you know the name of our local newspaper you can google it.

We find out tonight if our library levy passes or not...

UPDATE: Library is ahead by 56 votes. Next count on Thursday!

Using the tutorial here at art projects for kids we had fun doing a little bit of art in the back yard this afternoon.

I love it when it's nice enough to be outside!

Pretty much since it's summer, I make sure we do math, reading, and art. The rest of our learning is informal. We'll be more diligent in the other subjects in the fall.

She's so serious. I've had a hard time convincing her that art has no right or wrong. Almost every art project has tears of frustration because she can't get it "right". We're working on that. 

 

In the end she's always excited about what she's created, and we got to be outside in the sun!

Yay for summer school!

 This is the new picture going in to all of our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. I wanted a picture that included Robin since we really do this together. Today we packed 10 more, bringing our total up to 30 for the year...20 more to go! I'm told that the children really enjoy having a picture of the people who pack their gifts.

Since I had the camera out, took a picture of Ms Robin and Rebekah because they were looking cute.

I tried to get a more "real" smile out of Rebekah by having her say a boy's name, you can see that worked out well for me...

 at least Robin is adorable :)

Vegan Chocolate Pudding

One of my favorite things to do lately, is find healthy ways to make our old comfort foods. I had a friend ask me to find a way to meet her need for chocolate pudding without unhealthy artificial sweeteners and other bad for you stuff.

I've seen a few recipes floating around the net, so I can't take full credit for this one, but I tweaked it to use what I had on hand, so here is what you need:

1 ripe banana (preferably riper than the one pictured here!)
1 ripe avocado
1 cup non-dairy milk (I used almond but it really doesn't matter)
1/4 Cup cocoa powder
2 tsp lemon or lime juice
3 TBLS agave nectar

Directions: Peel the banana and avocado, cut them into chunks and put them into your food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients and process the living daylights out of it until it's smooth.

Pour into individual cups and chill for an hour.

It's VERY tasty and unless you told people, they'd never guess what is in it!
Try it before you knock it :)