Informed Decsions

This is why I support and listen to Ron Paul. Take the time to watch this!!!! Whether you are Republican or Democrat--He makes Sense! He's right on the money and the fact is----It is time for TRUTH to once again reign in America not the platforms and secret agendas that currently blot our national politics. I know that the election is over but there is much that we can and should be paying attention too and raising our voices to either oppose or support. If you are not sure where you stand on ANY particular issue--before you make up your mind--find out what Ron Paul has said about it and just see if that doesn't make things a lot clearer in your mind so that you can make a much more informed decision. It may surprise you!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG_HuFtP8w8

Getting Crafty

I decided to get a little bit crafty one recent afternoon so I made Addison a quick, super-easy little skirt. I had been saving this fabric for ages and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to finally put it to use. The skirt itself is just a plain, straight skirt with an elastic waistband. There is nothing fancy about it but Addy LOVES it! I think she likes it so much because it is just so dang comfortable. It is made out of stretchy, knit fabric. No sooner does it come out of the wash and she has it on again. For some reason, this little girl loves wearing skirts. I can hardly ever get her to wear shorts during the summertime--but give her a little skirt and she's happy as a lark. This particular skirt is great because I don't have to worry about whether or not she is going to ruin it by playing in it. --It's all about playtime. If she wants to run, jump, climb trees, swing or anything else while wearing it--it's ok with me. She hasn't quite figured out what things actually match and what doesn't yet but At least with this particular skirt the "clashing" is somewhat minimized based on the small aspect of the pattern and general neutrality of grey.We went to the library the other day for the kids summer activity hour. They were tie-dying t-shirts. All three of the kids had fun tie-dying their shirts. It was a really fun activity and all of the shirts actually came out really cute. Andrew's is a navy blue color. He's not in this particular picture because I can't seem to get all three kids to wear their shirts at the same time. Andrew wears his about every other day. It's kind of like Addy with the skirt--It never really hits his drawer--He just pulls it out of the clean laundry pile and puts it on.--the problem is, my son is sort of a neat freak. He can't seem to stand a dirty shirt, so as soon as he gets a speck of dirt on it--off it goes and into the laundry shute. One day we'll get it all together and I'll be able to snap some pictures with them all in their cute little shirts.

Huckleberry Adventures

We decided to play hookie from the real world on Tuesday and head out into the wild, blue yonder for some good old-fashioned huckleberry picking. My friend Kristine and I along with our combined 6 kids (and the dog) loaded up the snacks, berry pails and swimming gear and drove on up to Bald Mtn. lookout to find some of those sometimes reticent huckleberries and have a bit of fun.


The kids loved climbing the big lookout tower to the top. The view was stunning! You could see for miles in any direction. The tower itself is kind of neat in that you can actually rent it out to camp overnight in it. It had a bed, fridge, sink, and stove with 360 degree windows to take in the breathtaking panoramic scenery.



I love taking off into the great outdoors. Almost any excuse is good enough for me. Huckleberry picking however, turned out to be a great excuse. The kids all got along pretty well, the dog had a nice day out, the company and conversation was of course fun. Not to mention that I love huckelberries and am looking forward to multiple huckleberry smoothies and huckleberry ice cream and huckleberry milkshakes etc. etc. this winter.



When the kids got tired of picking they entertained themselves playing in the woods


After we were all hot and tired of picking berries we piled in the truck, headed down the mountain and over to Laird park for a cool swim in the river. Kaylee, Isaac, and Addison had fun taking turns jumping off the dam into the river. Sometimes I'm surprised by how brave they can be one minute and how, at other times, their fear can get the better of them over something that to my mind is not near as scary. Go figure, I guess it's just like food--I'm often amazed by what they actually like (ie. fried onions or artichoke hearts) and what they decide not to like (ie. Kool Aid or grilled cheese sandwiches). But I digress...

Andrew, Jackson and Corbin had plenty of fun too--playing in the shallows, digging in the sand, throwing rocks in the water and generally just being boys.

No one wanted to leave but we had to get back to pick up Brody. I half expected my kids to zonk out as soon as we hit the highway but they were having too much fun fighting the whole way home. It was that--"I'm so exhausted that I have absolutely no more reasoning capability" sort of fighting. Good thing I still had a few more snacks left.

Before Green Gables

Last week when I was sick as a dog--coughing my lungs up and constantly trying not to pee my pants I needed some sort of diversion. Mother-in-law to the rescue! She had sent this book to my sister-in-law just recently giving it high reviews. I decided to pilfer it the last time I was up there. Thank goodness I did! It was just the ticket! I needed something that required VERY LITTLE energy and yet occupied my mind to a sufficient degree that I could have brief respites of calm-without coughing and making my weary abdominal muscles work anymore than they absolutely had to.

Long story short and without anymore whining---I loved it!

I have always been a fan of Anne of Green Gables and I, like many others have wanted there to be more to Annes story. I didn't want it to end. I was a little leary at first though, knowing that often when a different author tries to continue the series it usually comes out flat and not nearly as good as the original author's work. That being said, I was pleasantly surprised by how wonderfully this book fits in with L.M. Montgomery's original series. It feels the same! It was easy to read, entertaining, full of fun details that seem very much in alignment with the "real" Anne books. The book is actually a prequel to the series that we know and love. It tells the story of Annes early life before she was adopted by the Cuthberts. There is plenty of substance in the book to give a person cause to think without detracting from the sheer entertainment value of a good story. So, for whatever it's worth, I give my two thumbs up and suddenly feel the need to break out my Anne of Green Gables and Anne of Avonlea movies to watch for the thousandth time.

Berry Pickin'

Took the kids up to a Strawberry farm in Spokane. We picked about 50 # of Strawberries. Addy was my best Strawberry picker of the day. She kicked butt. Andrew couldn't stop eating them and Kaylee couldn't stop asking questions about them.

This is what 50 pounds of Strawberry jam looks like. I have a whole shelf dedicated to Strawberry jam in my freezer. I may not have a whole year supply of some things but at least I have my jam taken care of. Priorities!!! lol

Independence Day--Camping at Elk River

We decided to spend our Independence Day out at Elk River this year. They always do a pretty good fireworks display down there and we have missed the fireworks the last few years so we decided to combine a fun camp trip with the fireworks show this year. We got a little nervous when we got to Elk River on Friday morning because everything was packed! There were no campsites to be found and there were tons of people all over the place--not our idea of a relaxing camping experience. We weren't panicking yet though so we drove back toward Bovil and decided to try the road up toward the Elk Creek Falls. Eureka! We found a really great spot about a 1/4 mile before the parking spot for the falls. It was perfect. No one else around. Not to far from a bathroom. The kids even found the kingdom of Terabithia there. Whenever we would head into the Chaos of Elk River we were so glad that we weren't camping there and that we were far enough away to avoid the insanity. We could enjoy the amenities ie. lake, creek, fireworks show and then we could go back to our nice, quiet, relaxing spot in the middle of the woods.

Amanda and I jumped on the quad one afternoon and took off to explore some areas just west of where we camped. We were pretty shocked to have a little black bear cub run right across the trail just a few feet in front of us. I slowed down to get a better look and Amanda said, "go, go, go!" thinking that the mama might be somewhere close by. It was so fun to see it. I've never seen a bear out in the wild before.

We rode down to this little stream. I'm thinking that I would really love to come back sometime with a picnic lunch and hike my way down this creek sometime. According to a guy we met, there is supposed to be a really cool waterfall with a great swimming hole downstream from where we were. I'd like to find that sometime.

The views were just so pretty--the sky was blue, the bushes and trees were green, the wildflowers were out and the sun was shining. Nice way to remember and be grateful for this amazing country of ours.

We hiked down to the lower and middle falls on Saturday morning. Life was good on the way down. It was coming back up that kept us huffing and puffing. We picked up a couple geo-caches while we were there too. It's always kind of fun to combine the cool hikes and gorgeous scenery with the thrill of the find. --At least that's what I keep telling my kids and the husband. :)

It was really quite nice to have kids that are old enough to hike in AND out all by themselves. (Not that they didn't try to get me to carry them) I just kept telling them that if they got themselves down there then they could get themselves back out--and they did. THIS pregnant lady was NOT going to be carrying anyone out. (although we did occasionally have visions of having to go back for the quad to pull Jeffs big butt out) lol
I have to admit though----I am hurting today. My calves are killing me. Jeff isn't even sore at all. What's that all about.

This is my new favorite camping treat. Amanda brought this idea. You make sugar cookies ahead of time. (you don't even have to mess with the cookie cutters--just cut the dough into squares and bake) then you spread on a mixture of Marshmallow cream and cream cheese and top with your favorite fruit--or whatever is on sale and WaLa! Instant yumminess! We had them for desert one night and then the next morning since we were going for the hike and didn't want to make the more in depth breakfast that we had been planning we decided to make these again for a super quick and easy breakfast. Kaylee doesn't much care for sugar cookies (go figure) and so she just mixed the cream mixture and the fruit in a bowl and ate it that way.

Jeff and Dan went fishing one afternoon while Amanda and I hung out with the kids at the lake. We let them swim around by the shore for a while then when they got tired of that we took them out on the Scanoe that Dan and Amanda brought. The scanoe is a little wider and flatter than a regular canoe which gives it a little more stability--Thank goodness because we had Amanda, myself, K, Addy, Drew AND the Dog all in that scanoe rowing around the lake. It's a miracle that we didn't tip over. I don't have pictures of that because frankly I was not taking any chances of carrying my camera with me on that particular outing. We rowed over to an empty dock and were getting ready to have a great time all by ourselves when much to our chagrin here comes a whole herd of people with 4 other dogs. I was a little nervous about how Maya would react to the people and the dogs but she was actually Great. She pretty much stayed right with me and all the dogs seemed to get a long ok. The kids (K and A) had fun jumping into the lake from the dock and swimming all around. I had to throw Maya in a few times. She didn't much care for that. Hopefully she'll get a little more used to it and will want to jump in on her own sometimes. She doesn't mind wading in the water but she has never really wanted to just jump into the deep areas.

Saturday afternoon we decided to hike/float/drag down the river. Jeff and Dan went ahead of us fishing and we followed behind and had some good times playing our way down the river. Drew loved the shallow areas--he's still a little freaked out whenever we hit an area where he has to float--even in his life jacket. It was a good primer for going to the lake later in the month. The dog came too and actually seemed to like swimming a lot better this day too. Maybe she's getting used to it. The water was still a bit chilly though.

Saturday night was the big Firework display. We got there at about 8. We wanted to get a decent spot to watch. Andrew came prepared with his head helmet flashlight and his citrus gum that he kept pretending was his teeth.

The "real" show didn't start until 10 but that didn't seem to matter because everyone all around the whole valley was lighting off their own fireworks--and I don't mean just the puny bottlerockets and blackcats--I mean there were hundreds of really cool, BIG-TIME fireworks being set off literally all around us. We had monster rockets being set off directly over our heads. Every direction you turned your head you could see and hear the fireworks going off. It was CRAZY! This literally went on for 2 whole hours before the show even started. Then after the "real" show was finished they all started up again and went for at least another 1/2 hour afterwards. I've never seen so many cool "home" fireworks. The great thing was that we got to enjoy them all without having to pay for them ourselves.

The kids were entranced at first by all of the rockets and sparks going on around them. The

dog on the other hand, could have done without them. She huddled into a shivering, little ball for the whole 3 hour ordeal. She was not a happy camper. Addy and Drew actually missed the "real" show because by that time they were so exhausted that they fell asleep--Andrew on my lap and Addy in the backseat of the truck. They don't even feel cheated because there were so many cool "home" fireworks that went up. They don't even realize they missed anything.

We really packed a lot of fun stuff into this weekend. Lot's of memories were made and I can't wait to do it all again in a few weeks.

Top 10 reasons why I hate being pregnant

The end result is nice and I'm absolutely sure that it will all be worth it--but seriously, being pregnant sucks!!!

10. Heartburn that makes you reflux acid into your mouth even at night while you sleep.

9. Bending over: I just normally take this simple body movement for granted I guess. Being pregnant gives it new meaning. Suddenly the 101 things that the kids leave all over the house is sheer torture. Putting on shoes--a fight to the death. Scrubbing out the bathtub--fuggettaboutit!

8. Maternity clothes--They never fit right no matter how far along you are. It's either too tight here or to loose there.

7. Not being able to sleep on my stomache--or at all for that matter.

6. Laughing, sneezing, yelling at children, coughing, jumping etc. (all of these tend to put excessive pressure upon wimpy bladder) --'nuff said!

5. Suddenly every time your children want to snuggle on your lap all you can think about is administering the football "stiff-arm".

4. GAS--in all its dastardly forms.

3. Not being able to do things with the kids over the summer that I normally don't think twice about like bike riding and water skiing or even making beds and squishing throught tight spaces.

2. Picking just the right name that's not too common and not too weird with the perfect meaning and historical references attached to it. You know--the one that you BOTH can agree on.

and the number 1 reason I hate being pregnant...

Sex starved husband constantly "asking for the order" when all I can think about is... "Oh my gosh, is he freaking kidding me." :) :) :)