Biker Dudes

Last Saturday, The Mr. went on a bike ride with some friends. I thought the pictures that L took were really good, and wanted to share them here as well. Click here to view his photo album.

Decluttering

Recently, I have spent a couple of days Decluttering our home. There is now a huge pile in the garage of things I have been given and can't use, things I have collected, things The Mr. has collected, old sports equipment, things we don't use, things I don't like etc. I started in the kitchen, went through every cupboard, then did the same in all the other areas of the house. When I pack it all into the car, it should almost fill it. It will be such a good feeling to drop it all off and know that someone else might find a use for it even though I didn't. Going through a huge box of memorabilia, I came across a lot of photos of myself and The Mr. and art we made when we were little. I thought it would be fun to share a few pictures. These are photos of photos, so quality isn't great.

Chatty with Mommy and Daddy. My mom just gave me this baby dress last year and I didn't realize until today that it was the one in this photograph. I found it while decluttering today.

Chatty wearing mommy's sunglasses. I remember this maroon Suburban and have a lot of memories. One of them includes ice fishing, maybe that is where this took place? The scenery in the back ground definitely looks flat enough. You would never get a picture like that here in WA unless you were at the ocean!My Grandpa C with my sister and I. I loved that table and chairs in the background.

The Mr! I LOVE those overalls.
The Mr. and his younger brother (who is called "Sallad" around here.)

A Shopping Day

Drooler took his mommy and I for a day out shopping yesterday. I say it like that, because he was very good the whole time, which gave us the ability to shop! We went to a few different places, but the specific ones that really stick out in my mind are the change room mirror at Gap (see photo below) and the craziness at Daiso Japan. At Gap, Drooler ended up with this shirt. His mommy ended up with these. She was spending a gift card that she had carried around in her wallet for a couple of years- I say it was about time!

Whoa- all those babies look the same!

Daiso Japan is a new store that is "sweeping the nation." It has been in Japan for years, and has been in Richmond, BC for a while now and the Bellingham store just opened this summer. It is like the Japanese version of a fancy dollar store that has everything. Below I will paste some interesting links to show you what it's like. One of them even mentions Richmond. The stores in North America are advertised as being an exact replica of their stores in Japan, and are so entertaining to walk through. Everything is in Japanese, so they have price stickers on the shelf with the English words. They carry everything you can think of, hanging from the roof, walls, stacked on shelves with sliding layers etc. They carry the coolest dishes, (everything you need to serve a proper Japanese meal) neat notebooks and papers, wood items, tons and tons of plastic bins and storage baskets.... the list could go on and on. I bought some cute, retro looking chicken plates. I don't know what for- but I thought kids would like to use them when they come over. It was interesting seeing the Japanese newspaper they wrap the breakables in, and the spelling and grammar mistakes on the packagings.

My chicken plates and the Japanese newspaper

"Natural Interior, Let's choose according to your feeling. Wish that you have a nice day."

Daiso Japan Links:
Japan
Richmond
1st USA store

Irises

I am enjoying my Irises so much right now so I thought I would take some pictures and share them. I got them from Isobel McCoy sometime right after we moved into this house two years ago. She was planning to move and wanted to share the bulbs with anyone who would like them. I took a plastic bag full and they sat in the garage for quite a while until I finally put them in the ground, thinking they might have died. That May I was surprised to see that I had at least 6 blooms on the three different bunches I had planted. Well this year, it's a completely different story. Each clump has at least tripled in size, and I have over 20 blooms right now, with more to come. They are so pretty. It has been neat to see the different colors that I have. The light blues and yellows didn't bloom last year, so they were a nice surprise.

Disc Golf

The Mr. is losing his current shift at work and in a couple weeks will be going back to rotating shifts with rotating days off, instead of working 2-10 pm daily with weekends off. We will miss having weekends off, but the nice thing is that since his days off will rotate, every six weeks there is a four day weekend when the weekly days off bump into each other. (So it's like Mon/Tues off one week, Tues/Wed the next week, and by the time it comes to Fri/Sat, those two days off bump right into Sun/Mon of the next week, so we have four days off in a row.) Anyways, it will be a big change since he has had the 2-10 shift for 12 months now. We decided that we should try and get out of town for the few weekends that he has left. On Saturday we spent the afternoon playing disc golf with Napper and Cheerful. We went to a really neat disc golf course in Lake Stevens. It has 19 holes and is in a beautiful area. Catherine Creek runs through it, and Napper will tell you that it isn't a good idea to let your frisbee land in it. I spent more time playing with the camera than playing disc golf, since I forgot to bring my wrist splint, so I took a lot of nature pictures.



Click on the album below if you can't see the slide show above, or would like to read the captions.

May 19/07 Lake Stevens Disc golf with Napper and Cheerful

Chop Chop

I did it - I got my hair cut today and I love it. It is so light, curlier and will be simpler to manage. It will dry quicker, curl faster and it will be easier to put up on the hot summer days I hope we have this summer. She cut about 6-8 inches off, depending on where it was taken from. It is layered, so she said it was at least 8 inches in some spots. I went to my normal hairdresser in Blaine. A lady who grew up in Aberdeen, ID and knows the Klassens and about the meeting room, since she went to school with several of them. It was a weird thing, and I don't even know how it came up, but we know some of the same people, and that is just uncommon. I think she must have asked me what Church I go to, and it grew from there. Well, I don't want to keep you all in suspense, so here are some really bad pictures. Mirror pictures never turn out well! In both of these photos I let my hair do it's own thing so I could see the difference in the curl before and after. A tiny bit of gel and air dry. Usually I add gel and blow dry it with a diffuser to get it curly. So now that my hair is dry, I can say that it is definitely curlier. The curls are larger and more bouncy. Instead of lots of little frizzy curls, I have larger thicker curls. The top is still a little flat, since I didn't blow dry it.

P.S. Who would have known I could post something so boring? Hey- haircuts are a huge deal for me since I average one a year!

Tagged- Sometimes I Just Love Spam

I was struggling with what to post for today, so I decided to check a few of my friends blogs and see if I got inspired. Well, I got tagged instead. :) Thanks Anna! Now I need to reveal seven quirky things about myself. That is something I am not confident that I can do. Let's wing it and see how it goes.

1. When I have a lot of work to do, I like to plan to get it all done before noon. Then I procrastinate till about 8 pm and get it all done before 10pm. For example, last night at 8 pm, I finished the laundry, re-potted 4 plants, baked a dessert for The Mr.'s lunches, dusted the living room, picked up the mail, put my all my shoes away, did the dishes and tidied up the whole house.

2. I think thrift shopping is relaxing. Some people are completely overwhelmed by thrift stores, but I find them fascinating. I can spend an hour in a thrift store, come out with one item I paid a dollar for and be happy about it.

3. I do not know my multiplication tables past 2. I know some here and there, but not very many. I am just not a numbers kind of person, and never was able to learn them. I was so happy that when I went to the U of R, they allowed calculators at tests. I scored the highest grade I had ever had in a math class and was close to the top of the class.

4. I play the piano and type, but rarely with the right fingers, which used to frustrate my teachers.

5. I love cheap salad. I just bought a huge bag of pre-mixed salad at Costco for a couple dollars. Ice burg lettuce, slivered carrots and purple cabbage. Yum!

6. Nothing on my walls match. They are such a mis-match of wedding gifts, thrift store finds, texts and my favorite things. The weird thing is that it doesn't bother me. Yet.

7. You would think that scrapbooking would be more of a winter craft, but now that it is summer, I am more motivated than I ever was. It has probably been almost a year since I last worked on it. Yesterday I went through all my stuff, organized, sorted and now I am ready to start up again. I think it is because during the winter, my creative juices really slow down. It's so beautiful outside right now and that really inspires me and gives me a lot of ideas for fun layouts and color combinations that I never would have thought about in the winter. Pink and orange, brown and robins egg blue, pink and grass green, turquoise and tan....

I tag anyone who is reading this and would also like to play along, especially those who know they haven't updated their blog for a couple weeks. Hint hint!

Mothers Day

On the 11th, Lily put together a Mothers Day tea at the meeting room. Everyone pitched in, bringing food, decorations, tea cups and tea pots. It turned out to be very pretty and a lot of fun too. There were strawberries stuffed with whipped cream and mascarpone cheese, scones with jam and clotted cream (-yummy!) mini sausages, cubed cheese, meatballs, samosas, tea sandwiches, desserts, fruit and of course - lots of tea!

Busy Days

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David drew this all by himself, except a salmon, above the nose of the shark. I drew that. He didn't have any help other than for that one fish. He is so creative. Notice Sponge Bob Square Pants and his Pineapple House. The men fishing in the boat, and some of them falling off. The three cute little seahorses. Click on this and blow it up so you can really look at it!

Since I stay at home, I often get asked questions like "What do you do with yourself all day?" "What is keeping you busy these days?" or "What do you do to keep yourself busy?" Well here is a good answer and explanation. I will explain yesterdays schedule. 10:15 in the morning, Drooler and his mommy came over and we went to Costco in Bellingham where we bought groceries and I also picked up a three pack of Hostas for my front flowerbed. We ate lunch at Costco and shared a table with a really dear old Christian couple who told us the complete story of their lives, how they got married five years ago (they are probably in their 70's?) both their first spouses had passed away, they live part time in Hawaii, but for now, live about 5 minutes away from here. They have 25 shared grandkids. We had a really nice time talking to them while the wife treated Drooler like her own grandchild, cuddling him and keeping him happy while we ate. When we got back to the house at 1pm, Tracy came and dropped off David, Esther and Luke so I could babysit them while she went to Vancouver to pick up their new trampoline, took it home, dropped it off and ran to Home depot to pick up pipes for the trampoline net. She must have had a busy day! While everyone was still here, I moved three large plants to different places, to make room for the new Hostas. David and Esther "helped" and it was a lot of fun. Drooler and his mommy went home to make supper, Tracy came back for the kids, I cleaned up the house and then Char, LeAnne and Heidi came over. We went down to Birch Bay state park and had a bonfire with S'mores of course. Dave and Lu Thonney surprised us by joining our bonfire. They were vacationing at Birch Bay and Char had told them earlier about our plans, but it was a nice surprise for me. They all came over to the house after and we watched Thumper jump around the family room. After everyone left, I made a dessert. Boiled eggs for sandwiches (today is the Mothers Day tea at the meeting room) and made two lunches for The Mr. for his double shift. The end. Well, I am sure I must have forgotten a few details here and there, but we will call it the end. No wonder I slept well last night. Of course, this isn't always how my days go but now that it is summer, days are getting busier and busier!

Birdfeeder Fun

We put up a bird feeder a little over a week ago and it is empty already. So far I have only been able to identify a few of the birds that have been to the feeder. Red Winged Black Birds, Chickadees and Goldfinches. There have been Starlings scavenging from the ground around the feeder as well, which is nice because then it doesn't feel like that seed is going to waste. There have been various other birds visiting the feeder, but I am not good at knowing their names. All different colors of browns with different markings here and there and different body shapes - pretty hard to identify unless you really know your birds. I just call them all Sparrows. We have also had a ton of Swallows flying around. I love their wing shape.

The first visitor to the feeder- Male Red Winged Black Bird.

Red Winged Black Birds Male and female.

Gold Finch Male and female. Look in the top left hand corner of this photo.

Sunday School

We had our Sunday School Treat on Saturday. I had a couple of other post ideas bumping around in my head, but these were just too cute not to share right away! The kids worked so hard and they all did a really good job. Teaching them has been really enjoyable.

One of the songs my class sang was Shamgar had an Oxgoad.

Shamgar had an Oxgoad,
David had a sling,
Dorcas had a needle,
Rahab had some string,
Samson had a jawbone,
Aaron had a rod,
Mary had some ointment
And they all were used of God.

This is Knittery's pre-school class singing Who did Make the Flowers Grow.

Last verse:
Who did make the flowers grow
Fish to swim, birds to fly,
Who did make both you and I?
God in Heaven above!

Camping

This is one of my favorite photographs of my siblings and I. I am in the polka dots. This was taken one summer on our family camping trip. Here is a list of things that I remember about our family camping trips: rain, rain, more rain, bible readings and doing Sunday School papers at the table in the tent trailer, walking to the bathrooms in the morning when it is really cold, cream corn, fishing, eating the fish "shake-n-baked" by Dad for breakfast the next morning, the Interpretive Center at Good Spirit Lake campground, and David (I think) who was the camp organizer for kids activities, reading lots, that one time there were bears in our campsite, sunny warm days at the beach, crackling fires, hot chocolate before bed, smoke and smoky smells, cereal in mini boxes, family bike rides, washing all our brightly colored Melamine dishes that looked just like this. I love camping, and the memories that were made with my family. I love that my parents took the time for these trips and gave us these memories to cherish.

Hatchlings!

I am so excited. I knew that there were several Mallard duck pairs making our pond their home, but I didn't expect to see hatchlings this early! I noticed a lot of little ripples along the edge of the pond today, and on closer examination, seven little newborn ducklings! I think they are the smallest I have ever seen. The photo quality is really bad because I wanted to stay out of their comfort zone, and they are fast. :)

All this talk of ducklings reminds me of this photo: