Okay so its the time of the year I have to order prints to enter in the County Fair.  These are the ones I'm considering.  Tell me which two are your favorites.  PlEASE?   The first Zeria in the falls

Zeria doing a handstand

Moonrise

Daisys

La Push

Vine Maples

Or if you think of one I've put up in the last few months that you think deserves mention that would be great too.

TIA

Well after about a 7 hour drive (3.5 each way)  the kids are safely encsconsed at camp.  We will go pick them up on Saturday.  The four youngest are making sure we don't miss 2 more.  LOL

They are running through the house playing a very loud game of tag.

I think they forgot I told them to go outside.

I've recovered from last weeks long bout of sick.  I feel energetic and ready to function again.  *cheers*

Rob did an overtime last night, and one again tonight.  The night nurse is on vacation.  The overtime will help, but it means I won't share a bed with him until Friday.  I miss sleeping with him.  I like hearing him breathe, and knowing I'm not alone.  Its funny because before I got married I thought I'd hate sharing a bed, but I really enjoy the comfort of knowing he's nearby.

I think I might have gotten all the munchies outside.  ha!  They come in one door, and go flying out the other.  Don't ya love summer?

We took a mini-adventure yesterday.  About 2 in the afternoon I was restless, so we loaded up and went for a short drive.  Its a weekend thing you know.  Well since we moved out here I'd heard that their was a falls on a local river, but didn't know how to get to it.  I'd asked questions, and gotten closer to how to get to it, but its one of those hidden local things ya know.  So this time we headed up the road, and I finally saw the little road it was on.  So we pulled over and walked down the road about 50 feet which rapidly turned into a very steep trail.  (VERY steep.)  I actually sat and scooted down on my bottom for a good ten feet.  *snickers*   And then we came upon this small but VERY powerful falls.   The river goes from being 30 feet wide to about 3 feet wide in about 3 seconds flat. 

The sound eminating from it made one have to yell in order to be heard.  What was more impressive was the gorge it is then forced through. 

The water right there?  We threw a big rock into it and watched it fall, and fall, and fall.  We believe its at least ten feet deep.  We wouldn't let the kids get within five feet of it LOL  The current was extremely swift.  You could see leaves swirling down, down, down and then flying back up. 

Another view of the falls with Rob and Jeremiah observing.  It was so incredibly powerful.  Rob was a lot hesitant about going down the trail with wee ones.   But once we got him down there he didn't want to leave.    And we both think it would be a superb place to come back on a date night--it is after all less then ten miles from home. 

I'm trying to load a video to share so you can hear/see the power, but I'm not sure if it will work.

On other news we are taking Zeria and Samuel to camp for the week.  Its the first time we'll be away from each other this long, but I'm sure we'll all handle it just fine. 

We went for a lovely drive this afternoon.  I'd been eyeing a road that I'd never been on before, and so we through some water bottles, and crackers in the van and explored.  Its a beautiful road--mostly forest service.  It follows a lovely river, and has at least 3 water falls that sneak out.  The first really nice one was accessible from the road so we got out and explored it. 

Thanks to all the rain last week it was still flowing quite nicely, and when we looked up in the trees and could see that their was two parts to it.  Jeremiah was asleep in the van, and we didn't want to disturb him, so Rob and the other kids decided to go explore.  I sent the camera with Rob.

Rainbug heading up the creek to get to the falls.  You can see the tip of it at the back of the picture. 

The kids up at the falls sitting on a tree. 

Rob discovers the telephoto on the camera and takes a closer up view.   Just as they got to the falls--I could see them through the trees Jeremiah wokeup and said.  "Mommy, I see a water fall."  I acknowledged this, and then he looked out the other window.  "Mommy I see the river."  (his two favorite things in the world.  So he and I got out and checked out the water fall while waiting for the rest to meander back down the creek.  I want to go see the seconds falls very much, hopefully next summer when Jeremiah's a bit bigger as it involved a fair amount of scrambling. 

As that was done we continued on until we ran into a road closed sign.  We then backtracked to a different road which we took to the end, and found this beautiful trail in the woods.   We ate our crackers, and decided to hike a bit of it.  It was gorgeous with all these huge big trees everywhere.  But then we realized there was something even more exciting.  Blue Huckleberrys.

If you enlarge that picture you can see them better.  The kids picked a few and ate them, and then asked if we could get enough for a pie.  We had no containers, or anything, but they really wanted pie.  So we borrowed Rob's hat.  And managed to get enough for a nice lovely brown betty.   (They decided that was better then pie.)  

Zeria picking on one of the bushes.

And our end result of berrys.  You can't tell, but we actually ended up with almost 7 cups of berries.  And they were very nummy--we all were tempted to lick our plate when we were done!

In the middle of picking berrys we spotted a particularly enormous tree, so we climbed over a bit of brush and checked it out.  It was mostly dead, but even so very impressive.    Rob and Rainee were down over the hill picking berrys so they didn't pose for this one.  The bugs were something terrible, and we are all showing off some of their bites, but hey you can't have an adventure go 100% perfect.  LOL

After seeing the tree we decided to pick our way back to the car via the trail.  Which we did, and finally decided we just needed to get back to the car as it was dinner time, and dinner was 45 minutes away--and not even prepared yet.  LOL

All in all a very successful adventure that we all want to repeat again. 

I invented this today, and it was superb.  I've had it in restaurants, and surfed a bit online to get ideas, and decided I could one-up it in the easy department.

So here it is

6 cups of chicken broth.  (I made this with bullion cubes, but if you have broth that would be fine too)

1 can of chicken.  (fresh chicken would be better I'm sure, but hey)

1 T vinegar.  (I used balsmic, but any vinegar will work)

1 can of corn

1 cup of salsa

Bring almost to a boil, and then let set at low for at least ten minutes.    The longer you let it set the better the flavors will juice together.  This tasted so good, and was super duper easy.   Its supposed to have broken tortilla chips in it, but we used saltines.  As a extra treat we sprinkled about a teaspoon of cheddar cheeze on top, but that's not necessary.   Can you tell I do a lot of tweaking when I cook.  I rarely cook a recipe the way its written. 

And my three day headache has temporarily abated.  I'm really, hoping that means its gone, but I'm not holding my breathe.  Its very hard to function with this strong of a headache. 

And guess what?  On payday.  It was the week the raise finally kicked in.  The one the states been promising for over a year.

So we are not nearly as tight as we thought we would be.

Rob is amazed at God's grace. 

We are still going to be frugal.  ITs a lifestyle we need to live.   And we loose track of it from time to time.

Gas is our luxury--and we are going to have that luxury after all.

So breathe, and relax.

I have been quite miserable this week, and just barely functioning.  It is the reason for no posts, and such.    I still feel like crap, but hope to get on tonight. 

I really am alive.  I was in a five-day funk though.  The weather has just been awful.

But today we finally got sunshine.

And a reality check.

Huge

Big

Bad

Boo-Boo's

in Check-book.

I think the worst we've ever made in our marriage.   *cringe*

Not good.  Things are going to be tight for several months if not more.  Big time sucky mistakes.

Like Its a really good thing I have a freezer full of food.  Tomorrow is *supposed* to be payday.  And normally I would go spend a lot of money on food.

But today I spent $60 that I had hidden away in preperation for Rob's birthday.  And it will have to last us to the 10th.  Meal wise we will be perfectly okay.  I have a lot of meat in my freezer, and I always have a 25 pound bag of rice.  I added a 15 pound bag of spuds to the mix, and we're good to go.

Snack wise.

Well my kids are gonna be whiney, and unfortunately I can't do anything about it.  We have a small check that comes in on the first.  I *might* spend a teensy bit more money then and add to the snacks.

I don't buy fancy snacks, but my kids do like things to nibble on in between meals.  In the summer time its usually fruit, otter pops, and crackers.  (not all at once different times.)

Jeremiah when he wakes up typically gets a graham cracker to hold him off until Rob wakes up.  He won't be the next couple weeks.  He'll live, if not be a little bit whiney.  LOL

I'm done feeling sorry for myself about the mistakes that were made.  Its not going to prove anything, except give me an ulcer.  But one would hope I'd learn something from it right?

Anyhow tomorrow when we dig ourself out of our overdraft protection, and pay off the 3 bounced checks.  We will have a teensy tiny bit of money to last us.  As gas is currently $100 a tank...its not going to last us long.   I think our river for entertainment is looking better and better!  The downside is the kids (sam and Zeria) are going to camp this weekend--and its a very long drive.  We had full intentions of driving them, but now I'm thinking of seeing if they can catch a ride with a friend even if its only one of the directions.  *sigh*

Big bad mistake.

Oh we could borrow money from Rob's parents--I'm sure they would help, they have before.  But we don't really feel like we deserve it.  And we're not starving, we just have to be very, very, very careful.

Oh and pray that the wretched vans stay driving.  Although if they quit we'd sure save on gas wouldn't we?

And we've gotten two inches plus of rain today, with it still coming down hard.  They've actually announced a flood warning.

Has anyone seen summer?

I'm looking for it.

Is it in your neighborhood?

Can I move in if it is?

And it continues to rain.  Its hard to believe we had 90 degree weather a couple weeks ago.

Actually it isn't.  Even though its rained steady for the last 5 days, we are running around in tank tops and shorts and have the windows open as its quite hot and sticky.

We have a date night tonight.  We will go to my favorite Chinese restaurant in Forks, and then for a drive.  I also want to get some worm medicine for Blacky.  He's bearing weight on his leg, but just keeps getting skinnier.  *sigh*   So I'm wondering if its worms.  I *never* buy canned cat food.  EVER.  But I'm thinking I might buy a few cans for just him to see if we can fatten him up.  All the other cats are nice weight, but he just isn't.  *growl*

Rainy weather means I've gotten a fair amount of scrapbooking done, and a fair amount of playing with PSP, as evidence by yet another fairy picture.  Points up.  I was really happy with this one.