Loving

I didn't do a Father's Day post.  So consider this one a day late.   We'll call it many reasons I'm greatful God allowed me this man.

Hard-Working

Child-Torturer

Child Mocker.  *snicker*

Chld Snuggler

Can't think of something catchy here--they were comparing muscles.  *snigger*  Its his favorite picture so I had to share it. 

Oops edited to add my favorite picture.   He's immitating Zeria.  *giggles*

Its been a busy, but lazy weekend.  No the two are not mutually exclusive.  *snicker*  Friday in the morning we spent "harvesting" rock for our front sidewalk.  It was a beautiful drive interupted frequently by there's a nice big one.  We just go up and down logging roads and get big ones that are in the ditches.  LOL  And when there's a few extra big ones the kids bale out of the van and do a quick wiggle.   By the time we were done we had over half of what we needed for our project. 

One major extra perk was the mama deer with her twin fawns we got to see.  Because we were going up and down interconnecting roads we ended up seeing them about five times.  But never long enough to take a very good picture.  She wasn't intrested in showing them off.

In the afternoon after a nice lunch we all headed to the river with daddy.  It was gorgeously hot, so even I got in the water.  Unfortunately the water wasn't gorgeously hot--it was frickin cold!  But hey you can't have everything.  We hung down there until about 3:30 in the afternoon.  So nice and lazy.  When we got inside Rob decided on a lark to call a young girl who has recently become old enough to baby sit to see if she could.  I figured he was on a goose chase.  We haven't had a babysitter since we moved out here a year and a bit ago.  She said YES.  And an hour later we were off on a date.  Shocking.  It was soooooooooooooooooooooo nice to have kid free time.  And hubby exclusive time. 

We had a satisfying dinner at the Chinese restaurant in Forks.  MMMM  I love honey glazed walnut prawns.  MMMMM  He had happy Family.  And afterwards we decided that we would go drive up a different logging road and see if we could harvest the last of our rocks.  See we LIKE doing it.   But our kids figured we'd already done it once that weekend, and wouldn't have appreciated a second shot.  So Rob harvested rocks, I snapped over 45 pictures, and all and all we had a lovely time, and ended up getting back 15 minutes later then we said we would.  But since she wants to do it again I don't think she minded.  We may actually get a regular date night again!!!

The trees in one of the valleys on the logging road we were on. 

A baby waterfall on the road we were on. 

A rather nice close up of wild daisys alongside the ditch.

Foxglove backdropped by a rock cliff.   The contrast amused me somehow. 

Saturday was spent building a fence.  We didn't get as far as we wanted cause the ground was HARD, and we had no bar.  We do now, I picked up one yesterday in town, so this coming weekend the project should go much smoother.  In the afternoon it was overcast and we decided we'd load up and have a picnic at the beach.  We wanted to go to my favorite ocean beach (La Push).  But when we got there it was FREEZING cold, and raining.  We stood and watched the waves for a bit, took few pictures as my camera kept getting wet, and came home.  As we got closer to home the rain disappeared, so we decided to have the picnic in our own yard. 

We ended up sitting around the fire for almost 3.5 hours.  It was nice and lazy.  And yes we had fun even though most in that picture looked stoned.

We also did a lot of this.

I believe its called improving on family relations?  That is unposed she had no clue I was taking it--which was all to the funny!!!

I took a ton of funny pictures, that I might load later, but this blog is pretty picture full so I'll stop for now.

Yesterday was church.  Rob had the sermon.  And then a drive to my parents.  We had a nice relaxing time with my family.  Its starting to seem normal not to have the whole extended family there---if not a bit sad.  My brother called while we were there and had a nice chat with my dad.  And my sister had already sent her gift.   My gift to my dad was a shutterfly book of my fairy pictures.  He really liked it. 

All in all it was a nice relaxing weekend.

Rob came home to do an overtime last night, and will be doing two more overtimes in the next two days.  (Night shifts).   The paycheck shall be nice, and then he probably won't do an overtime for quite awhile again as our checkbook is quite nicely balanced again.  WHOO!

He could do several a week if he wanted, but we prefer family time over overtime.   The night shifts however he rather likes doing as nobody else wants to do them, and they fit well into his schedule, and he already does two a week, so it doesn't mess him up that much. 

He's asleep now, though how he does THAT in a household this loud I'm never sure.  Our next "big" project actually is to turn our hay shed into a small guest house.  We will use this to store our camping gear, and a nice comfy bed for Rob to sleep in on overtime days.   The project shouldn't be that much money.

We will pick up a used door from waste not want not, and one nice window.   We will then just need to run the wiring through it for a light and a couple plug ins, and then put up some kind of siding on the inside.  The outside is very nicely finished.   We originally were gonna do drywall, but decided some kinda of tongue and groove wood would be better.  This way if in the future we decide we don't want to heat it, we could move the camping gear and bed out, and not have it get mildewed. 

So that was our weekend, and such a nice one.

Can I have another one back to back. 

This weeks photo challenge is Heart of the Country.  I had to think awhile about this.  Because when I think country I immediately think cutesey wootsy tractor pictures.  And though I truely live in the country.   In the middle of the nowhere.  I live in the woods country, and don't have that kind.  But when I finally made myself think I pulled all of these out.

The first one is "My" heart of the country.  This is my dad teaching my husband how to buck a tree.  My dad has been a logger all his life.  This is country for me.  This tree he's bucking by the way was a winter damage tree that was too big for our bitsy chain saw. 

Jeremiah in overalls.

Samuel checking out his balance

Nieces and Nephews and my kiddos checking out a old beater in Yakima

Jeremiah getting ready to feed the pony.  (except there's no food in the bucket don't tell him)

Feeding the pony the empty bucket. 

The only thing we harvested last summer.  And we harvested a LOT of them. 

Jamari relaxing in the clover

Rainee pickin' flowers

Cousins taking a walk.

Cousins taking a ride

Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease

Bronchial Malacia

Near Complete Distal Trachea Rings

Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease

Gross  Motor Delays

Central Sleep Apnea

Chronic Yeast Infections

Patent Ductus Arterosus

These are all words Rainee taught me in the first five years of her life.  They are words I've agonized over on this blog since I've been blogging since before she was even "created". *cough ROFL*

And its been a long haul.

But today a miracle happened.

I went to a healthy checkup for Rainee today.  And for the first time we didn't end up with a referal to a specialist.  We didn't add meds, and we didn't add a new diagnosis.  She's still on prevacid, flovent, and singulair.  But in my and the doctors eyes.

She's

Healthy!!!

Thank you God.

I have found a new challenge for Zeria and Kaylin.  I've spent quite awhile looking for something "extra" for them to do.  NOthing has jumped out and grabbed me.  Most things were totally filled when I did inquire. 

On Saturday I was handed a flyer by a lady I recognized in Swains.  She invited Zeria to join a Baton team.

Zeria LOOOOVES throwing and catching things.  Its this bizaare game she plays.  She gets these long sticks and throws them high in the air and catchees them.  Her grandparents were highly impressed way back in September with it.

Anyhow, her and Kaylin will join.  Its only once a week for practice, and there supposed to get to do parades, and such.  Its free with the exception of purchasing a baton.  It is unfortunately in Port Angeles, but at only once a week I can handle that.  I hope it works well.  It will start the last week of June.

Last night about 6 we decided to go for a drive.  IT had drizzled most of the day, and mommy needed OUT.   As we began to drive the sunshine began to peak out of the clouds.  The kids immediately began asking about the beach.  Rob and I were tired, and really not in the mood.  But as we continued west it got nicer and nicer.  I finally said.  "Okay, for a few minutes, and no whining when we say its time to leave.  And if it begins to rain we're out of here!".  I wasn't enthusiastic in other words.  So we got out, and suddenly everything that had been dragging me down disappeared.  The beach was beautiful the kids were happy.  We walked about 3/4's of a mile one way, and then turned around and slowly meandered back.

The kids climbed all over the huge driftwood at this beach.   Its a nameless beach.  We call it the ivy beach.  It happens to be our current favorite, and we hadn't been here in almost a month.  We'd also never walked as far on it.  When we got to the end of the sand we were standing under these beautiful green trees, in this perfect little cove. 

The kids loved the trees and climbed all over them.  I love how wild the beach is here.  The beach and the woods are in partnership they aren't seperated by parking lots, and manmade stuff.  Nature is one. 

I can't describe how beautiful this little cove was.  And I couldn't even begin to explain the surreal nature of where we stood, but the next picture comes somewhat in the general direction of the feel of it. 

We sat there for awhile and oohed and awed, and then slowly began meandering back.  The kids were quite delighted over the fact that mommy had to get on her hands and knees to get under one big piece of driftwood.  Mommy you can crawl?  They inquired.  I just laughed at them. 

As we started heading back the tide began to change and the waves really picked up.  They were incredible.  And we found this really warm soft sand.  Kind of a novelty around here.  And I told the kids I would sit for 5 minutes so they could dig. 

It was bedtime after all, and we can't miss our schedule.  (sarcasm here.)   Twenty-five minutes later I finally reluctantly got up.  ROFL  The kids had started swimming, and I knew if we waited they'd be crying.  The water just gets very cold.  I also could see the tide really coming in, and I knew I'd have to be climbing over some of the monster's we'd walked around.  And as I'm not very good at mountain climbing we reluctantly and slowly made our way back to the van. 

Jeremiah enjoying the soft sand. 

Jamari digging in the sand. 

Rainee soaking up the last rays of sun. 

I actually had to run around one of the big logs in between waves, and just barely escaped being soaked.  Rob chose to climb over, he didn't want to get wet.  I gave him my camera to keep it safe.  Prioritys you know.  ROFL   But I made it and cheered a victory dance.  Its always fun after all the beat nature at its own game.  A few feet more and we waded across the little creek and were back to our van.  I stood and soaked up the view one last time.  Snapped a few more pictures, and said Thank you God. 

I will just NEVER get tired of the ocean.   Hopefully my subscribers never get tired of pictures of it.  ROFL

This month's Art Rage Challenge topic at Xanga is In the Still of the Night.  I rather enjoyed making this, I hope you enjoy looking at it as well. 

This weekend has flown past.  Its been a bit drippy, but not torrential downpour.   I've spent a great portion of it on a labor of love.  When we moved out here we desperately looked for a place to Worship.  Our options in this community were not great.   Two of the churches were doctrinally unacceptable.  And the third church was a denomination Rob swore he would never go to.   (loonng story).

We couldn't see any other options, so continued to drive to our old community, and were extremely frustrated.

One day while driving I finally noticed a dilapated sign for a church.  It was a denomination I was unfamiliar with, but willing to research.  We researched, my parents researched, we talked to the Elder in charge.  And then we finally visited.  We entered the building and immediately felt at home.  We have been worshipping at the Church of Christ in Clallam Bay for over a year now.  And last week I finally got brave enough, and unstressed enough to ask who was in charge of church maintenance.  (There's only 30 of us at  church.)  Chris one of the men there smiled and said I was.

I laughed at him.  And then asked if I could repaint the sign.  He said it was a project that nobody wanted, but everybody knew was way overdue.  (understatement)   I talked to the lady whose treasurer, secretary etc.  And she said the church would easily provide money for paint.  After church her husband showed us the sign could be unbolted.  He and Rob unbolted it and we took it home.

This is the way it looked before hand.  I had to spend a good half hour with a wire brush scraping it, as it was very very bad.  The letters have been carved out, and were cool.  But you couldn't read them worth beans, and the paint was bubbling, and mostly gone. 

So two coats of white, two coats of brown on either side, and the sign turned out very nicely.

It was fun to do, and greatly appreciated. 

This weeks photo challenge topic is surreal.

I had to think a minute as to what I would do with a vagueish word like that.  And finally I picked pictures that when I saw them loaded on my screen made me say, wow, I can't believe that exists.  It doesn't seem real somehow.

So here we have the incredible blue sky.  (Hey I live in the Pacific Northwest its a rare commodity)

The blue sky as seen by a mud-puddle.  Who knew they could reflect beauty?

My absolute most favorite beach in the world.  La Push, Washington

The full moon rising. 

Another blue sky cloud picture

And the brilliant red of the vine maple.  (something we didn't get when I lived just an hour from here.)

The pink of sunset.

Enjoy

So here we are on the first part of our hike.  My batterys were already flashing, so I don't have very many.  The dark blue in the very background is the strait.  The kids had a blast walking.  They picked tons of flowers, and threw rocks, and examined things for every angle.  Jeremiah walked the whole way.   He only got tired the last tenth of a mile, and that was cause he had shorts on and was cold. 

We walked through mostly forest, with some very grown-up clearcuts.  I loved the way the sun was peaking through the trees. 

Rainee had this HUMONGOUS bouquet of every flower known to man.  She carried that thing for over a mile, and continued to add to it each new flower. 

Kaylin's bouquet was a bit more reasonable, but even still pretty.

Samuel had a great time destroying flowers, grass, etc.  I finally had to ask him to stop as he was making me sneeze!  He's so boy.

Anyhow that's the few pictures that turned out.  I would have had so many more had my batterys not completely stopped after I took the above picture.  Darn it!