Glasses & Power Outages

We had record breaking rainfall yesterday - 1.12 inches - more than October 16th has seen in a long time.  (This broke the record of 1995 where we had .72).  

Then we had gusty wind today. 

Then a tree went down across the road. 

Then we had no power. 

Thankfully it came back on only 2 hours later - and the weather is somewhat warm outside, so it wasn't uncomfortable in the house. 

We decided to take advantage of a 'free' day to go to the mall to get Blaire Rose some new glasses.  We purchased some new ones in August and have had to have them repaired 6 times in six weeks - the lenses just kept popping out no matter how well they shaped them.  We finally just picked out a different style and are having them made with her prescription this weekend.  Quite honestly, I like this new style better than the one we picked out in August, so it works for me - just a bummer that we've had so many issues with the previous pair. 

Happy Mother's Day

We have been planning to do some raised planting beds along our back and side fence. On Friday we purchased everything we {thought} we needed and got right to work on Saturday morning.

Only 2 trips to Home Depot & one stop @ McDonald's later and we were finished with the back fence portion. Working together as a family was a great Mother's Day present.

All 3 kids were excited and willing to help out.

They had a great time assisting in clearing the 'trench' area and
they loved helping move the landscape timbers.

Make Shift Pantry

I am in love with having a pantry. It isn't that big, but I have enough cabinet space in my kitchen to hold my baking supplies so that my pantry only has to have cooking supplies.

(Picture during construction April 2007)

I stock up on deals and love getting a rock-bottom price on items. So... my pantry is often bursting at the seams with canned goods, boxes of crackers, etc.

It appears that we also have ants. You know those annoying little soil/sugar ants that seems to be able to get into any size opening - and you can never tell where they came from?

Turns out they really like honey. Who knew?

(I never knew they were called soil ants until 8 years ago when I called up the exterminator {for the first time in my life} and told them I had an infestation of piss ants in my house... seems that was just a term used by my family ... uggg... Here's to teaching your kids the right names for things so they're not embarrassed when talking to a professional!)

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It's been 10 days since the exterminator was here to spray the crawl space and exterior as well as put down ant bait in the house - I know it has to get worse before it gets better; but in the meantime we had to move all the items out of the pantry so they wouldn't be bothered by the ants... this is just 1/2 of it... the rest is in lidded containers in another room.



I pride myself in being a decent house-keeper. I don't always mop or clean as often as I ought, but my house is relatively clean 99% of the time. One thing you realize when you have issues with piss soil ants is just how dirty they can make you feel! Yuck - I am looking forward to them going bye-bye.

Pictures for Posterity

While I don't normally allow or encourage begging for things in our household, I couldn't resist when Paige kept asking "Please can I have a turn?" after she saw me vacuuming the stairs with our mini vacuum. I snapped some pictures so we can show it to her years from now when she's begging/bribing a sibling to take her turn at vacuuming.

I {HEART} You

I love Valentine's day. I always have.

I've often wondered why I have such strong feelings toward this obscure holiday - and the only real reason I can come up with is that it's my parents anniversary and so it was always a special day in our house. We had some sort of candy that day - unlike Easter when we didn't get a basket or other 'goodies'.

Combining my love for Valentines Day and my love for hosting things at my house, this year I had some girlfriends and their kids over for a luncheon - that way Paige could have a Valentine Party like I knew Graeme & Blaire would at school. I kept it simple and made peanut butter & honey sandwiches, but I took them a step further and cut them into heart shapes.

We had lots of heart-shaped candies.

A big bowl of fruit to balance the sugary treats

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What is your favorite holiday and what do you do to celebrate?

Friendship Trees

A dear friend of mine gave me this beautiful Dogwood tree as a late housewarming present. Kristine has been wonderfully welcoming and encouraging since our move up here to Kitsap County - she also serves as my underpaid garden consultant since I am definitely green-thumb challenged!Her husband even helped us plant it. WOOHOO!

Happy 5th Birthday Blaire Rose

5 Things I love about Blaire Rose:

• Fearlessness
• Trusting spirit
  
• Strength of character
• Strong emotions about everything
• Affectionate by nature
  

Just 5 years ago, on Memorial Day, Blaire Rose Forbes came into our lives - quickly and quietly - she was my easiest labor and delivery, weighing in at only 7lbs 6oz. Her big brother was quite enamored with her, and she looks up to him for his reading and writing skills and he looks to her for her fearlessness. They had fun opening her presents today - she graciously let him read all the cards to her and giggled as he got to the funny parts. Paige, on the other hand, couldn't quite understand that the presents were for Blaire and not for her - but they worked that out and quickly got to playing make-believe with the Ariel princess set.

We are praying it stops raining as we have invited over 40 people for a BBQ today - otherwise we'll be nice, close and intimate like sardines! God has blessed us with a big house and we love to use it for His glory!