Wordless Wednesday

Gonna try to do Wordless Wednesday again.  Please go check out the other participants.

Updates

11 days until kids are back in school!

I've got them both registered and will be going to the back to school nights (if their sports don't interfere). Normally I feel bad about not being a super awesome mom that doesn't count down until the end of summer (spring, winter) break, but then they start bickering at each other and I don't feel bad anymore.


The patio with a firepit project:  Tree has been cut down and the debris hauled off.  Stump has been removed.  The bigger "problem" roots were dug out.  Now to put in steps up to the patio, which involve digging and leveling and placing 8 foot railroad ties.  And then there's the finding, buying, and placing the stones - we're looking at flagstone. As well as building the firepit, we are were hoping to be done before fall. 

Oregon is throwing fall at us.  Not sure if we'll make our deadline...

We had very few 'summer' days this year with temps over 90. No, scratch that, most days we stayed in the 70s and below.  Weirdest.Summer.Ever.  Now we haven't even made it to September and leaves on trees are starting to change. WHAT THE HELL! I love fall, the colors and cool air and this and that - love it! Not to mention school starts up again. BUT DUDE seriously, already!?!  What is our winter going to be like?

11 days until the kids are back in school!!

Besides work and the regular chores to keep the house livable, presentable, and inhabitants cared for we have SPORTS to keep us busy. 

I really do love the kids sports.  Didn't think I would BUT I DO!

Carus's soccer team got to pick their names and they came up with "The Lightening Bolts".  I love it.  Practice is going good.

Adam's football season is just getting started.  Because they had to wait for insurance to kick in they haven't started practice yet.  BUT....

He has gotten his team and they start practice this week.  Not sure if they have a name or if they go off the college/high school's name? Will find out soon I'm sure.

This week we have:

Monday - Football
Tuesday - Soccer
Wednesday - Football
Thursday - Football and Soccer.
Friday - mommy has a drink or 2

11 days until the kids are back in school!!

Now enjoy a picture of the puggy running on the beach.

 
Yoda likes the beach. 

I'm gonna miss summer.  Wait, I already do...

Easy weeding

Our backyard is a work in progress.  There is a small patch of grass which we hope to double and a bunch of bark mulch.  Bark mulch looks great, especially when it's fresh.  And it does help cut down on weeds, a lot. It also gives us many many many splinters, but that's another story.

Even though bark mulch cuts down on the weeds, a few still pop up here and there. Yesterday we were working in the yard a bit - me with the garden, which is struggling. I'm a new gardener, don't judge me. And Robert and Adam were working on removing the tree stump of the tree we cut down this weekend.

This is the tree before.  It was a very pretty plum tree, but it had some damage where a branch had broken down the center of the trunk.  It wasn't too bad but it was bad enough that the tree wasn't so healthy and because of it was COVERED in bugs - which in turn made it even less healthy.

Plus it was in the way for our plans for that slope and corner of the yard. So down it must come.

Saturday we spent a few hours in 100+ degree weather cutting down the tree.  We then abandoned clean up for the next day - which wasn't any cooler, but we couldn't take the heat any longer.

The tree came down pretty well with only one branch being a pain and trying to escape to the neighbors yard.

Anyways, back to yesterday. I finished with what I was doing in the garden and decided to do some weeding in the yard and found a great new method.  No bending over!

• Grab a bucket (to put the pulled weeds in) and the most competitive child you have available.
• Walk towards a weed or point and say "I see one"
• Competitive child (Carus) will rush to the weed, pushing you out of the way to ensure only THEY pull it, do all the bending and pulling of said weed. 
• Hold out the bucket for the weed to be placed into.

TA DA!

Of course this doesn't work when coming across any weeds with needles, thorns, or anything that could poke - like the blackberry bushes that keep trying to come up. I'd love some fresh blackberry - I just don't want to deal with how fast they take over everything.

It also won't work when trying to pull up spider infested ivy.

Speaking of spiders - we have some mutant spiders out here.  We call them baby tarantulas.  They aren't tarantula in species (I think) but they are huge.  Probably some common garden spider.

I will not get close enough to smack them with a shoe. They have some legs on them and they will jump on me and eat me for daring to try to smack them.  Or grab the shoe and smack me with it. I use the vacuum to get rid of them, which gives a nice satisfying THWAP sound. THWAP sounds are funny too.

DUDE! They are big enough to make a THWAP sound!

See.

That is a 4-inch candle. The spider's length is as wide, if not wider than the width of the candle. The body is the size of a quarter, just more narrow.

Of note: Thank you Robert for my zoom lens. I didn't have to get super close to the spider to get these shots.

Soccer

Carus's soccer practice started last week and she is doing pretty good with it.

It feels nice sitting outside watching practice again - and soon we will be watching games. It is so exciting.

 First practice started them out with some dribbling drills. Zig Zag through the cones and then back to the start to go again.

Then the girls partnered up and practiced passing, stopping, and passing again. 

Practices are twice a week, an hour each, and at the same field.  The stability of the schedule is soooo nice! 

Isn't she so cute in her cleats, shin guards, and soccer socks!  She's one of the faster girls on the team, which her competitive side really enjoys.

After warm-up today, they did a little scrimmage.  Only 2 of the girls on the team (7 or 8 total, not sure) have played soccer before (other than in PE at school) and the 'game' was pretty good.  Carus's side was the first to score. 

Adam had said he wasn't interested in playing football (American football hardy har har) this year and we didn't push it too hard. 

But, at Carus's first practice he said he wanted to do it. Luckily we didn't miss the cut off and I got him signed up quickly.  We thought it was really good for him last year and thought that it would help with making friends this year because of the move, but still didn't push too hard.

We aren't sure when his practices will be, but expect his games to be on Saturday's.  Carus's games will be on Saturday's as well.  Robert and I will have to split up between the games, which kinda stinks - but we are holding out hope for some good spacing so that we can make at least some of the games together.

Fish see things funny

With some of my birthday money I bought myself a few toys, one of which was a cheap fish eye lens. 

I got this one Opteka .35x HD Super Wide Angle Panoramic Macro Fisheye Lens from Amazon. 

Timmy, Yoda and Robert posed for some test shots. 








It may not be as good as the really expensive fish eye lens (like the $700+ one) and it isn't 'professional quality'....

But.....

It is fun to play with!