sittin' the bench

I made a bench.

This is quite possibly the easiest project I've ever done.

This bench is for our beloved homemade kitchen table.  We've been talking about making a bench for about as long as we've had the table. The pro of a bench is that is makes for more effective clean up. So instead of sweeping around 12 legs you sweep around four.  Con is that two or three people sit on one stationary bench and can't adjust it to their likes.

We had some lumber in our back yard from a project that my step son deconstructed for me and I just went for it.  Now I can get rid of three chairs.  It's part of my minimalist movement. *snort*

low tide

 Brian sent some phone camera shots from this morning's low tide beauty.

After yesterdays rant I owe you that much... ;)

renting Alaska

So we're learning that finding a house to rent in Ketchikan AK is THE most frustrating and ridiculous experience so far in our Alaskan Adventure.

We've had two different parties turn us down because we have five children.  Well they are children, not animals.  It's hard not to feel discriminated against when they tell you "sorry you have too many children".

My husband looked at a place that was priced right, but is a crap hole run down duplex and when he asked about whether the owner was going to do anything about the black mold and water damage the realtor told him, he didn't know what the owner was going to do and, "well that's Ketchikan for ya."

Finding a place to live that we can afford is starting to be a nightmare...

I called a realtor myself and she tried two different ways to get me to look elsewhere to find places to live.  If you don't want my business, fine, we'll look elsewhere.  That's pretty simple.

I fully understand why there is a T.V. show called Buying Alaska.  It's so ridiculous it's fodder for a reality show.

Well, my peeps, this Alaskan Adventure has hit a major bump in the road and the alignment is now way off.

To Be Continued...

I can't believe it's butter

So before the hubby left for AK we were going to make butter, for fun, but the cream got lost and forgotten about in the fridge.

I saw the cream and got it out and started making butter and then realized that the expiration date was today's date.  Phew!  Nick of time baby!  Nick. Of. Time.

I have a Tupperware thingy that I've used before to make butter and it was working just fine...

cream, Tupperware thingy, salt

kid powering the Tupperware thingy

the beginnings of butter

... but then I got an idea...

alaska marine highway

The Ferry is booked!






Let me just say...gettin' to the land of the North ain't cheap.  But hey, we did say we were going to go on a cruise someday...
So at the beginning of next month we are going on a cruise. ;) Yay!

I wonder if they have a kids club...

No?

hmmmmm...

Well, this is what we get to look forward to ...

just what the doctor ordered

hooked

So, they say that if you are doing something you love, your blood pressure goes down .

road with a view

That's the view from the road.

I'd wreck.

Just a little Alaskan beauty for your weekend.

Fishing trip photo's coming soon...

explain it to my heart

With the last few sappy posts I bet you are expecting this post to be about missing my hubby or something like that.  He was in training all day yesterday and went to the movie with my sister and her hubby last night so there is nothing of a significant Alaskan nature (no pun intended) to report...

So I'll tell you what I did yesterday.

I took my son to the pediatric cardiologist.

He has SVT.  It, and other weird, but not uncommon, heart problems run in my dad's side of the family.  Mine and my dad's heart "skips a beat", but my son's heart "races".

Here, let Web.MD do the talking...

day 3--poor suckers left at home

So the photo's came rolling in last night... (finally)

oh my, oh my, oh my.

What a view!

Can you believe that view?

And that's from the parking lot of the grocery store!  Ha!  No seriously, it is...

AA--day 2

Just to clarify, AA stands for Alaskan Adventure--not, you know, A.A....ahem.

Anyway, so today I'm still missing the hubs, but I'm not an emotional wreck like I was yesterday.

Saying goodbye at the Shuttle I was a blubbering idiot.  Then I got home and saw the empty space on the bathroom counter where his things sat, and I puckered up and bawled again.

I'm an emotional person by nature, but I surprised even myself by how many tears I shed yesterday.  I'm sure the emotion was exaccerbated made worse by the fact that I had had about 2 1/2 hours sleep the night before, but still...

epic adventure

Our family is about to embark on an epic adventure.

I really shouldn't be writing anything with the little amount of sleep I've had, but I must tell you all how it's going thus far.

the wild frontier

So because this is my blog, I can put a shameless plug in for my hubby's jerky. 

My hubby makes the most amazing jerky and people have been telling him for a long time that he should sell it.  So he is.

He found a USDA approved facility that produces jerky and contacted them, they met, talked shook on it and the process began.

In that process, he had to convert his recipe to fit the makers process, go through many test batches (that was fun for the whole family), get government approval on his recipe, and label. 

Now that that's all finished, he is in like Flynn.  He's cooking with gas now.  He's able to sell to the public, so look for him on Facebook, or contact me to hook you up with the best jerky in the world.

https://www.facebook.com/frontiersmanjerky

 

first day of school...sort of

It's the first day of school today!

I don't know quite what to do with myself...

Oh, that's right. Yes I do... I still have one at home.  Who's that you may ask?  Well, my Kindergartner of course.

Warning: Mommy rant

butterfly kisses

photo credit b-won

So we have quite a few tender hearts at our house--my 10 year old daughter being at the front of that line

Indepence Day Family Reunion

Just thought I'd post a little of the fun we had on the Fourth of July.

vintage camping

We bought a camp trailer!

It's vintage!

You've heard of Glamping?  Glamour camping?  

Well this is our Vamper.  Vintage camping...

you're only as old as you feel...

So my 25 year High School Reunion is here.

We went last night to the basket ball game against our rival.  It's hard to say rival because we all went to Jr. High together.  Then they built another Sr. High School and instantly we were rivals...

Come heck or high water I was going to last nights game.

I live only 45 minutes drive away from where I went to High School as opposed to 8 hours drive away for the last 20 years, and I've been looking forward to it for months now.  I've made it to my 5, 10, and 20 year reunions driving from another state away, going once when I was 8 months pregnant and this year, I'm so close and my crack-a-lackin' back gives way again.

The reunion was last night, today and tonight and (Fri. and Sat.).  Monday, I helped move a wood pile and by Monday night I couldn't walk.  NOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooo....*wimper*

Well, I went anyway.  I'm going tonight too.  I can limp and gimp at home or at the reunion so I'd rather be there.

My point here is that since I wrote my last post about my back issues and going to get walking--I haven't.

There was that week long stretch of riding bikes...
and walking vigorously around Wal-Mart because from Shampoo to Toilet Paper you cover a flippin' half mile...
Then there's vigorous house cleaning...*snort*

But there wasn't real, regular, targeted exercise and now I'm flat on my back writing this post.

I'm so disappointed with myself.  Once I got feeling better the last time, my mentality was, "oh, I feel better and I just won't lift incorrectly... and I'll exercise...but didn't...x2.

So last night while watching 42-43 year old guys I went to high school with play basketball, I was thinking how glad I was that  they didn't have the girls team play.  I have to say that those guys still have some moves.  I was impressed.  I think my hubby was impressed with my yelling skills... I still have some pipes.  Back? No. Pipes? Yep!

I'm going to the dinner tonight.  Me and the hubs are going.  I'm the one that looks 82 years old hunched over, can't stand up straight and is wearing a big ole summer maxi dress to hide the back brace.

If you're only as old as you feel, then tonight I'm going to my 65 year class reunion.

Hydrangeas

 I just wanted to post some pictures of beautiful flowers and let you know that I am still alive.

 My husband and I started a "small" business and it has taken every bit of my time.

I will have to blog about that when I get a moment to breathe...

 But in the meantime, I wanted some lovely flowers on my blog...

I love flowers.

My thoughtful hubby gave me a live Hydrangea plant for mothers day and miraculously enough, I haven't killed it yet.

I would love some tips on these plants as I live in a dry hot climate and I don't know how well these do here.  I mean, I am the queen of googling, but tried and true helpful hints are the best.

If you live in a hot dry climate, and can keep Hydrangeas alive leave a comment on how you keep yours alive.

consumer report

If you follow this blog at all, you know that I love Pinterest.

I am also a scientist at heart.  I like to experiment to see if things work.  It's a method my mother used on me as a kid.  Maybe I'm a doubting Thomas at heart.  She'd say, "just experiment and see if you like it or not."

So, when I see things on Pinterest, I have a natural curiosity to see if it works, or if it's too good to be true.

Here are a few of the pins I have tested.

crack-a-lackin

It's amazing what chronic pain does for ones mood.

For years, I've struggled off and on with spine issues of some sort.

About a month ago I ended up in the ER with extreme low back pain.  Now, I've given birth naturally--twice and this back pain exceeded that tenfold.  It hurt so bad it brought me to tears and then it hurt to cry.  The pain was the worst physical pain I've had--ever.  But after the low came the high... My neck has been bothering me for months now...and not just a little bit.  Let me esplain something to you all.  I'm tough.  Physically tough.  When I was a kid and they gave inoculations in school, I was the tough kid who not only didn't cry, but watched them give me the shot. I was the arm wrestling champion.  I was the dare devil who broke both arms trying to beat the record.  I was the one who did dead men drops off the top of the swing set, not just the cross bar. As mentioned before, I gave birth naturally.  Maybe it's the 1/16th Cherokee Indian in me, I don't know, but I'm tough... ...maybe to a fault.

rug time blues--Homemade Jeans Rug

I'm cheap.

I am a do-it-yourself-er because I'm cheap.

I think if I were rolling in the dough, I'd still be cheap.

ok, fruuuuugal.


So, in our entry way, we need a rug.

Have you priced new rugs lately?  Ridiculous.  I'm not paying that kind of money for something we wipe our feet on.

I've pinned a lot of DIY rugs that involve some kind of hula hoop loom, big crochet hook, old sheets, old t-shirts etc., in hopes of finding one that I could make myself.  Yeah, I'm not a crochet-er, or knitter or hula hoop weaver, but I do sew.

Here's my train of thought on this project...  All aboard?

ice ice baby

I'm so ready for summer!!

How about you? 

It's always about this time of the year that I'm plotting out my garden,

thinking about summer vacation, longing for flip flops, airy summer dresses, vitamin D, and warm breezes.

a spoon full of sugar...

I'm ill today.  The dreaded mahocus I think is the technical term.  It has rendered me useless.

All I want is a Coke.  A Coke and a smile.

what a crock!

You know the old saying, "one mans trash is another mans treasure"?  It's soooooooooooo true!

It's true for women too!

It was a dark and cold night, our neighbors were tired, weary, sick of moving, out of room and out of time...

All perfect ingredients for scoring someone's stuff!

I squinted to see what I thought was an old crock sitting by the city trash can, alone, dejected, abandoned and practically begging me to rescue it.

I asked the lady of the house, (yep still watching DA) if she was throwing that out.  To my horror and glee, she said yes.  "I'LL TAKE IT if you're throwing it out" I exclaimed, hardly able to control my excitement from this serendipitous good fortune.

She said I could have it, it was old (antique) and that she liked it but, it wasn't really her style and that it was really dirty and she whispered that it might even have mouse droppings in it.  I'm pretty sure all  I heard was a chorus of Angels from Heaven.

you take the piano, I'll take the bench

So, after I took apart my new piano (that's another story) and put it back together, I thought it was time to  recover the bench.

new year revolutions

I don't do new years resolutions.

Maybe I should, but I just think it's the worlds way and I don't do things the worlds way if I can help it...you know like losing a ton of weight, or something big and nearly impossible (at least that's how it seems to me).  Or to organize my whole life.  Yeah right, that's gonna be life long task--or at least until the children leave the nest...

I, however, want to have more fun.

I have discovered that I'm a stick in the mud.

I'm not adventurous.  I am a home body.  If I had my druthers, I'd stay in.  A LOT.

So...

I vow to have more fun this year.

ring in wild bells!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I rang in the new year in the drive way of my moms house.  Where were you?

I and my family partied at my sisters house and I  just found out on facebook that she didn't take any pictures.  (SHE'S the photographer!).  I didn't take any either even though I brought my camera.  

So there is no proof that we partied hearty, but believe me we did.

We played a fun Mormon newlywed game and I learned that I am not actually able to read my hubby's mind.  hmpf!  For not being able to read his mind though, we tied for first place.  I think four other couples did too...  We had to start playing that game because at one point, we were all looking at our phones, sharing photo's from our phones, on the new laptop,  tablets or some other form of electronic distraction when we realized how lame we all were.

Everybody brought snacks and it was a veritable snack feast!  We had yummy hot dips, and meatball subs (that I didn't get a chance to try),chips & salsa, crackers and easy cheese (wouldn't be a party without it) cookies, m&m's--peanut, peanut butter AND plain, soda pop and sparkling cider.  I think I saw plastic champagne flutes for the toasting in the new year, but we were the party poopers and when the first child was out, we decided to go. We had a half hour drive and were fading fast.  We were en route when the clock struck midnight.  All three kids had fallen asleep at this point and didn't care to be woken up just to be told that it was the new year and look at the fire works.

So I and the hubby hauled the sleeping kids in, got them in bed, went to our own, promptly wished the world a happy new year on facebook and fell asleep.

I hope that this year brings us all prosperity, good fortune, good health, good luck, good relationships, peace, happiness, and a grundle of creativity.

HAPPY 2013 EVERYONE AND TO ALL A GOOD NAP!