Life in our house......

Soapy Soap Soap

I was making some soap and thought I'd post a photo or two of my new log mold.

Actually it is a about 6 months old but it's still new to me.  Anyway it is great and I use to be able to make 3 batches at once, but my last batch was super stubborn (darn Natural Lavender) and I couldn't get it to push out of the mold.  So I asked Jason to help me get it out of the mold and he broke the edge of the new mold. :(  He felt terrible and so did I... 

But the good news is, is that I can still do 2 batches at a time and it is better than my old wooden molds because I don't have to line the whole thing with freezer paper and I think it comes out looking nicer and has a better shape.  You may have noticed the difference in your last bar of soap or so... I'm now fully using this mold and I'm loving the way the bars turn out.

This is Red Clover Tea and White Tea and Ginger right after I made it.  It looks so shiny and fresh!  I love the way the logs look...

Have a good weekend!

Not much happening

We've all been a little sick this week.  Sam was having some breathing issues and now he is on oral steroids.  Yuck.  We strive so hard to keep  him well enough not to have to take them, but then something comes along and there is just nothing you can do.  It can be such a drag.  So I've been a little blue about that, but he is feeling better and I REALLY need him to feel good enough to go to school, but it probably won't happen this week.

Today we had to get out of the house and since he is feeling better we went to the local nursery to pick up some more plants.  I got some clumping bamboo for along the back fence.  Hopefully this will eventually give us a little more privacy.  The back yard is really starting to look good with the new patio and then I pulled a gazillion weeds last weekend.  So anyway I got some other stuff to plant in some planters and stuff, but now I hear it might snow this weekend, so I guess I'll hold off on planting them for a little bit.

Tanya, I just pulled that photo off the internet.  It is beautiful though. 

That's all the excitement around here for the last couple of days.  :0)

Poppies

Beautiful huh?

Well, I just planted poppies out back... Do you think they will look like this...?  :) 

I just threw the seeds out...  Sometimes that is just the way I like to garden.  We will see what happens and I'll show you the progress when and if I see any.

More Photos from Spring Break in Oregon

We had such nice weather here this weekend... Reminded me of a couple days in Oregon last week...

The photos of the boys in the field remind me SOOOOO much of how I use to spend so much time when I was their age.  My parents lived in the same house that they do now, in fact they have lived there for about 32 years or so.  So I spent a lot of time out there exploring just  like they did last week. 

We even paid them to find all the golf balls my dad hits out there.  They brought back two big bucket fulls of golf balls and got paid from Grandma, then when my dad got home they showed him and he paid them each a dollar, not knowing my mom had already paid them about a dollar.  Pretty tricky.... They take after there mom on that one.

I remember as a kid being in a room with my brother and my parents were in the next room over and yelling, "OUCH!! Greg quit hitting me!!" even when he didn't touch me, just so he would get in trouble..... :) 

But don't worry, there were plenty of times that he did hit me.  PLENTY!  :)

Anyway, we spent this weekend working in the yard and doing chores... Both boys and Jason are sick with little colds but they still had good weekends with the weather so nice.

I am sunburned!  I spent yesterday planting Dahlia's and Freesia and pulling the enormous amount of weeds that are everywhere... It was darn right hot out yesterday.  It felt awesome.  The sunburn.... not so awesome.

Rashy

Well I just took this with my I-photo camera on my laptop.  Kind of fun to have super instant photos, that I can blog.

Anyway I just spent the morning vacuuming this couch and all the cushions and washing that army blanket and the rest of our throw blankets....  I also have Sam's bedroom blankets and sheets in the washer...  Can you guess what has gotten me into my fit of cleaning...?

Dust.....

We took Sam to be allergy tested yesterday and yup, you guessed it... Allergic to dust mites.  ICK!!! 

This is good news in some ways, as we now know what he is allergic too and it is only dust, not pollen or grasses or Lily!  But bad news because you can't really ever get fully rid of dust and somewhat ironic for me as I am one of the worst dusters in history.  Guess I'll be learning to be a better dust buster!

We ordered the fancy mattress covers and pillow covers and I already have a good vacuum, so as long as I use it a little more often then we should be in good shape.  We will probably put laminate flooring in Sam's room too at some point and get an air filter for him.

He was such a trooper at the appointment, it is no fun and he was such a good boy.  We rewarded him by letting him choose a place to go eat dinner.  He picked The Ram .  We had a good dinner then all shared a huge piece of Mile High Mud Pie.  Yum.  My kind of kid, I tell ya.

Oh and mom, the Dr. did say he probably had fifth's disease, because there is no cause for him to have a rash and the signs of that are looking like you got a slapped in the face, type of rash.  He hasn't had one since last Friday so it's going away now.

That's about the size of it today. 

Remember When?

Remember about 4 months ago when I said I was itchin' to make a quilt?  Well, I'm not itchin' anymore.  I don't think I'll be itchin' for awhile.  :)  I made a super simple, just squares one for my brother and Monica for their birthdays.  I say super simple, but for me it's not because I'm no pro quilt maker and if you look closely you can see all sorts of flaws, but I still like it.  This was the first time I ever put fleece on the back and I'm going to do that more often because it makes it nice and heavy and really soft.  Anyway, I tried to make it sort of match the colors in their house, but I put the plaid in for my brother since the other fabric were kind of flowery. :) 

New Pay it Forward!

Natural Lavender...

Go to my other blog for more details...
Rose Petal Betty Blog .

Or check it out on  Rose Petal Betty under Pay it Forward.

Thanks!

Cousins

We spent part of Thursday and Friday over in Klamath Falls with my brother and his family.  It was really nice and the kids are all pretty close in age and they really get along so well.  When all of them are together you don't even really have to do anything, there are no arguments and they have a blast together. 

I really love the photo of Sarah and Sam even though it is blurry of Sam.  It shows how much fun they are having on the trampoline. 

The one of Reese is blurry too, but he was moving so fast it was the best I could get.

Then there is tooth boy.  :)  Cute, but that dang crooked front tooth!!

It was a great time and we even had a "slumber party" there.  The boys thought that was pretty cool and now they want them to come to our house for one... hint.... hint....

Also, I'm planning on having a new Pay it Forward up over at Rose Petal Betty  later today or tomorrow morning.  And yes, it is something other than Pucker Paste!  :)

We're Back!

We got back yesterday afternoon and Jason had a brand new bike waiting for Sam.  It was the last of his birthday gifts this year..

We opened most of them while we were visiting Grandma and Grandpa in Oregon.  It has training wheels but Sam wanted to take them off immediately.  Well we tried it, but we are not quite ready yet...

Considering he just turned five he has a while to get the whole no training wheels thing figured out.

We had fun while we were in Oregon and we always hate the drive home, but we are glad to be back with dad! :)

I'll post more photos from the trip this week....