121:366

Last fall we trimmed the HECK out of the snowball bushes.  They had gotten out of control and weren't too healthy so we were brutal hoping they will be healthier for it.  They are started to green up and bloom, and while things are a little wimpy and teeny I'm so glad we weren't too brutal and that we didn't kill it.  We'll get some fertilizer for it and I'll bet it will go nutso.



In Carus's arm news, she is using it with no problems and she doesn't complain about it hurting unless we remind her by asking how it feels.  I think we're in the clear for the broken bone thing. Yay!

Menu 4-29-12 to 5-5-12

Sunday - Hamburgers, potato salad
Monday - Mongolian beef, mashed potatoes
Tuesday - Chicken tacos
Wednesday - Spaghetti
Thursday - FFY
Friday - Breakfast hash
Saturday - BBQ pork ribs, macaroni salad

Links to some recipes can be found here. 


If you see anything you want a recipe to and it's not listed on my recipe page, leave me a comment to let me know and I'll post the recipe.

120:366

Doggies of the in-laws variety. Lady on the left and Coco on the right.

They came by for a visit today and Leia wore the poor old girls out.

119:366

Carus and her birthday-girl friend.

The party was today at Skateworld and it was loads of fun, until Carus fell one too many times and hurt her wrist. She was crying because it hurt, but cried more when I suggested it was time to go.  I iced it there and all the way home, then wrapped it with an ace bandage to make her feel better. We are waiting to see how she is doing tomorrow before we decide if we need to go to the doctor.  She can move her arm, wrist, hand, fingers, etc. so Robert really doubts she broke it.

I, however, am a paranoid worry-wort so of course I think she broke it and it's going to heal incorrectly and she'll be forever damaged.  Or it will get infected and fall off. (Cause that makes sense.)

I just worry I'm making the wrong decision waiting.  What if it is broken and I'm making her wait to get it taken care of?  (Because KNOWING the bone is broken is going to make all the difference.) I'm ruining her life or her arm. It's her right wrist and she's right-handed. Ohmygod,I'mcripplingmychild! (Again, that makes sense.)

She probably just jammed it catching herself with her hand and bruised the bones in her wrist, where most of the pain is, or at the very very most has a teeny crack in one of the bones.

WAIT AND SEE!  Aagghh!

118:366

Baby Timmy




























Kitty hugs

117:366

116:366

Apple blossoms



Last night when I went to bed, I thought I had a few moments to read so I switched on my bedside lamp and found this little guy.  He was TEENY! Almost cute... if he wasn't a spider.

Spiders freak me out. I respect them. I am fascinated by them. But they still freak me out and in their presence I become the biggest wimp ever.

I almost wish I had noticed this little guy earlier yesterday so I could count him as my 366. Or that it was the next day, but I wouldn't have been able to sleep knowing he was there (and his little friend I found moments later), nor could I stay up past midnight to get the shot for 366.  And I try not to be a cheater (at least all the time).

Menu 4-22-12 to 4-28-12

Sunday - FFY
Monday - Tuna melts
Tuesday - Grilled chicken, baked beans, salad
Wednesday - Taco salad
Thursday - Beef and broccoli
Friday - Hot wings, twice baked potatoes, veggies
Saturday - FFY

Links to some recipes can be found here. 


If you see anything you want a recipe to and it's not listed on my recipe page, leave me a comment to let me know and I'll post the recipe.

115:366

114:366

Did a little photo shoot with Carus this afternoon.  She poses so well.  She knows exactly what I want with very little words from me. She also knows how to help diminish the glasses glare, though there was some.



I convinced her to let me take a few photos with her glasses on though she isn't extremely comfortable with them. It helped that I told her I would take a few without them as well.



I love her new glasses, though stunned. I feel like they make her look years older and I'm not ready.  I'm not ready for her actual age, I don't need her older!

Weekend 366s and more

Spring hit Oregon in full force this weekend.  Gorgeous sunny weather with temps on Saturday in the high 70s and today was 80s.  80s!!!

We've been working in the yard all weekend and we're all a little pink.

Saturday we:

• The kids and I did grocery shopping for the week.
• I mowed the lawns.
• Robert redid the steps to the back yard.
• We all had a little BBQ with the neighbors.
• Robert tilled up the side yard where we had the tree removed, part is going to be our garden the other part will eventually be Robert's workshop/shed.  The garden will be going in in a few weeks.
• Carus and I went out to the barn with a friend Saturday to spend some time with horses and do horsie chores.

Sunday, today, we didn't do much, just start a redo on the front garden bed.  Last year we pulled out the plants that were in there and that left a bed full of river rocks.  Today, Robert and I went to a garden nursery and picked out a few plants and picked up some garden soil.  Then, we came home and we all dug all those river rocks out of that bed (and there were a lot!) and tilled it up.  After all that work in the hot hot sun we were pooped out and it was dinner time so I'll plant the plants tomorrow.  We have a couple more days of sun and temps in the 70s forecasted before the rains return.  Hopefully, just for a little bit.

Timmy has been enjoying the sun too.

It's officially spring when I have to start rescuing snakes from Simba.  This photo was taken with my phone, using Instagram

111_366 04-20-12

Friday evening at the barn watching a gorgeous horse move.

110_366 04-19-12

366 04-19-12, originally uploaded by smiles2have.

Taken with my cell phone using the Instagram app.

109:366

Little disappointed it's blurry, but she was tearing around the corner and it's a little hard to focus.

108:366

Silly puppy.

If you chew up the frisbee you won't be able to play catch with it.

Leia has always been a little bit of a scared-y cat - but the other day while running around outside she was startled by a snake and it has been getting worse since.

Two days ago, there was a little garter snake sunning himself in the backyard and when Leia got a little close he escaped quickly under the back fence.  She didn't see what disappeared so quickly and that freaked her out.  She barked at the fence for 15 minutes before we could get her to calm down.

A few hours later Robert picked up a loaf of bread and the crinkling of the plastic scared Leia - again with the barking.

Last week Robert went around and put little pieces of blue painters tape all over the walls marking spots that need patched up or re-patched after a poor patch job.  Last night, Leia noticed a clump of these blue pieces of tape.  It took us 10 minutes for us to get her to stop barking at the walls.

And then it was bedtime.

Leia's bed is on my side of the bed because she has (naturally because I spend all day with her) attached herself to me, and when I plugged my cell phone into the charger, the cord again freaked Leia out and she refused to lay down.

After one more trip outside to hopefully distract her, she seemed okay and wandered towards the living room couch, where she occasionally sleeps, so I just headed to bed.  I had just got comfortable when I had to rush out to rescue her from the big, bad....

...dish towel sitting on the coffee table.

107:366

Menu 4-15-12 to 4-21-12

Sunday - Chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes, country gravy, corn
Monday - FFY
Tuesday - Beef enchiladas (moved from Saturday after Taco and Chicken Baco Ranch pizza was brought in cause they sounded better and they're less work)
Wednesday - Homemade chicken noodle soup, grilled cheese sandwiches on sourdough
Thursday - Sloppy joes
Friday - ?  Unknown yet...maybe another FFY
Saturday - Carne asada

Links to some recipes can be found here. 


If you see anything you want a recipe to and it's not listed on my recipe page, leave me a comment to let me know and I'll post the recipe.

106:366

~Diana Gabaldon

And that's just the prologue. 

I finally got around to starting The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon today, and those are the first words I read today.  They just blew me away.

I've missed her.  She is my favorite author.  And not only have I missed her, but I've missed Jamie too.  (Jamie is one of the main characters of the Outlander series.)  Hopefully with this book and the part Jamie plays in it will help hold me over until the 8th book in the Outlander series comes out, Written With My Own Hearts Blood.  Last heard that book wasn't due out until sometime in 2013. Oh the patience needed...I need to just keep repeating to myself, "it will be worth it...it will be worth it...it will be worth it"

The delay in starting it was partly from waiting for it to become available from the library to check out, but mostly because I was working on finishing a series Adam had been trying to get me to read for about a year, The Rangers Apprentice by John Flanagan. It's a good young adult adventure series, by the way, and I recommend them if you A) like adventure series, B) are a young adult, C) like reading young adult series or D) haven't tried a young adult book/series since being a young adult.

*Photo taken with my phone, using the Instagram app.

104 and 105 of 366

I went out the Fernhill Wetlands Friday evening to check it out.  I had never been there before and I was participating in a photo scavenger hunt on Saturday with the wetlands as one of the subjects and I wanted a sneak peak.  It was lovely and very quiet and I was rewarded with a lovely pink sunset, though this photo doesn't really do it justice.

Saturday after errands and such and such, Robert went with me back out the wetlands.  I wanted more sunset shots, hoping for another gorgeous one.  And while the sunset wasn't pink it was gorgeous.

Here in Forest Grove, we have this businessman who can frequently be seen sitting on a bench near the library reading his newspaper.  He rarely seems to move.

Yesterday, we saw him again on our way to the library to restock our reading material and Adam gave a little peak over his shoulder to see what he was reading.  I think he saw something interesting and pointed it out to make sure the guy saw it too.



Adam is such a good sport.

Another view of the businessman.  There is really writing on that paper.  The newspaper has a 1970s date.

103:366

You know how I got her to hold still, lay down, AND look in my direction?

No, not a dog treat.

A dandelion.

I was walking around popping the heads of the dandelions in the yard and she was following me around biting at the flowers I was tossing.  They're edible so I just had her pose for one. (The plant will use more energy to produce more flowers, and if you keep popping off the flowers it will eventually die. No chemical weed control.)

102:366

Nothing big and fancy, just a camellia from my backyard.

101:366

The rain is back. :(

BUT but but!

Instead of just rain rain rain and more rain, we are getting sun breaks in between the rain showers so PROGRESS!

Fun little side note - see the leaning light post?  Yeah, it's leaning because one of our neighbors "accidentally" ran into it with his 4-wheeler about a month ago.  The power company "fixed" it, but apparently making it straight isn't a priority. So now it's MORE of an eyesore.

100:366

Gah, he's cute.

I'm phoning it in today with a pic from my phone.  HA! Get it - PHONing it in. (Instagram app)

The sun was out and I just had to get outside since the rain is supposed to return tomorrow, so Carus and I took the dogs to the dog park.  We had the dog park to ourselves. Both dogs enjoyed themselves, as usual.  Yoda ran around and peed on everything he could and Leia fetched and fetched and fetched the ball. Then got a drink.  Then!

THEN!

Fetched the ball again.  I need to get me one of those Chuckit! Ball Launcher and save my arm.

I'm not sure if I'm trying to get sick or if I'm dealing with allergies - either way I'm feeling a bit crappy. It probably wasn't the greatest idea to go out if it's allergies, but meh.  It's mostly my asthmatic lungs refusing to let me have enough oxygen. I'll be super hot carrying my inhaler around for awhile.

Menu 4-8-12 to 4-12-12

Sunday - Easter Sunday.  Roast beef, potatoes romanoff, gramma green beans, deviled eggs
Monday - Chicken Parmesan
Tuesday - FFY
Wednesday - Chili
Thursday - Chicken stir-fry
Friday - Chef salad
Saturday - Beef enchiladas

Links to some recipes can be found here. 


If you see anything you want a recipe to and it's not listed on my recipe page, leave me a comment to let me know and I'll post the recipe.

Weekend 366s again

97:366 Say aahhhh!

 
98:366
Painting Easter eggs with Carus. I was doing some dottery on mine. We were painting with food coloring. This was taken with my new cell phone and processed with the Instagram app.


99:366
Sitting down to Easter dinner.  Roast beef, potatoes romanoff, gramma green beans, and deviled eggs. And it was good.

Yesterday and today was GLORIOUS! outside.  So nice and sunny and WARM!  YAY Spring!

I had to break out the shorts today when I quickly got hot doing yard work.  Yup, I did yard work on Easter. It was just too nice to not be outside.  After mowing the lawns, I planted a few plants in the backyard, the first of many to be planted this year.

96:366

She's so shiny!

The sun is starting to come out between our rain showers.  The constant rain showers... We live at the top of a hill, there should not be puddles and swamps in our yard.

It's 'bout time!  I hope it means spring is here and the rain starts tapering off.

95:366

Growing too fast...

94:366

Whatcha doing puggy?

93:366

Menu 4-1-12 to 4-7-12

Sunday - Steak salad
Monday - Lasagna
Tuesday - Beef stroganoff
Wednesday - FFY
Thursday - Pork steak, baked potatoes
Friday - Chicken strips, jo jo's
Saturday - FFY

Links to some recipes can be found here. 


If you see anything you want a recipe to and it's not listed on my recipe page, leave me a comment to let me know and I'll post the recipe.

Weekend 365s

Saturday was busy with sending kids off to gramma's for the night, date night with Robert, which was shopping and then making dinner at home (steak, salad, and shrimp, btw. YUM!)  I nearly forgot to get a pic.  Luckily Timmy likes posing for the camera.


I spent Sunday doing laundry, grocery shopping, and making marmalade. I'll let you know in a week if it is any good (recipe says let it sit a week).

BUT it stopped raining for a bit on Sunday! (Hallelujah!) And I went out to soak up some sun.  It was amazing.