Its been a good weekend.

Not warm.  Never got about 50 degrees as far as I know.

But very little rain, and blue sky.

And we hit the beach 4 times total.  I missed one of those times as Rob went this afternoon while I napped, but all in all quite a nice break.

Friday it rained/snowed/hailed/blew so nasty.  And then about four o'clock the sun came out and I declared we HAD to get out.

The sky was so clean and clear.

It was impossible to take bad pictures.  LOL  So I'll just share seven of my favorites.  We loved that cloud formation.  We followed it for about ten miles before we got to our beach of choice. 

Samuel enjoying the waves. 

The sky reflecting in the rocks. 

the barge going by

Two Jamari's playing with a seaweed whip.

Two Robs and Jeremiahs.

No pics of the girls.  They were in the shade building a sand castle and it was too cold there.  We enjoyed ourselves but cold quickly.  We couldn't figure out why until we got on and looked at the temperature which our new car has as a built in feature.  37 degrees.  Or 3 celsius.  Yeah there was a reason we were cold after an hour of being on the beach. 

The other beaches I just enjoyed and *just* got the pictures off my camera, might share some tomorrow might not.

For now I have a big bowl of gooey cluster ice cream and True Lies calling my name...oh and some nice quiet time in the bedroom with dh.

I have been striving to achieve the above effect since I got my new software.  After MANY tutorials, and a lot of experimenting I think I finally figured out how to achieve water color.  I'm so happy with the result.

Watercolor was my first introduction to art.  My mom's best friend always carried a pad around and was experimenting when I was tiny.  I still have one of her pieces.  I was so enthusiastic about what she was doing when she finished it she gave it to me.    I need to get it back up on my wall too it holds a lot of special memories. 

My back is doing a wee bit better.  I still have to be careful, but not quite as.  And I found my creative mind again.  And several tutorials that have taught me a lot in the last couple days.

It hasn't really been a good week.

I put my back out in a BIG way Monday.  I spent all of Tuesday in bed...with the exception of an hour at the massage therapist.  I chose to go that route instead of the chiro as I didn't feel like last time the chiro did much.

I spent yesterday grocery shopping and babying my back.

It was feeling mostly better...but still very achy.

Today is more of the same.

I read the fantasy book Eldest about a month ago.  During quite a bit of the book he is dealing with back pain from a curse.  He refers to pain as being the obliviator.  Its all you can think of, or do when your in pain.  And when it recedes your mind is numb, dead and it takes much time to cut through the fog.

I related.  I actually read it to Rob when he got home the day I read it..and was almost crying when I did.  Because I hate the way I feel in during and after pain.

I loose so much time.  

I'm making myself mess with digi art today to attempt to stimulate my brain...its not going so well.  My brain is just focused on breathe, don't move that way it hurts.  Breathe.  My body is tired of holding this position but if I move that way it will hurt.  Breathe. 

So for lunch we shall have creamed eggs.

For dinner egg salad sandwiches.

Which should only leave me about ya know 15 boiled eggs we still have to eat...ideas anyone.

*snicker*

Today is Kaylin's birthday.  She is EIGHT years old.

Such a big girl.

We are celebrating in stages.  Today I gave her her birthday clothes, and she got her birthday breaky.

Tomorrow we are going to go pick out her birthday pressy a bike.  We didn't do that today, cause mommy miscalcuated and forgot Kaylin's birthday was *before* payday.  So we need to wait to have the $$ for it.

She knows what she's getting, as she's been asking for about 3 months for it.

We will also eat lunch out tomorrow.

And then Wednesday have her birthday cake.

Snicker.

Its all mixed up, but tis okay she doesn't mind.

He is Risen.  He is Risen Indeed!

I believe we are seeing spring.  If you look around things are starting to bloom.  Sure there was 2 inches of SNOW in Forks yesterday just 25 minutes from here, but its still spring.  I believe it.  LOL

Salmon berry bushes are blooming in several spots around my property.  

And today on our drive with my dad he spotted these.

The first Johnny Jump-ups. 

We of course had to get out and pick a few of them.

Jeremiah's still mastering the art of flowey picking.    He dug his up roots and all.

Rainee is thrilled to just be picking flowers again.  She LOVES flowers.  LOL   And was quite sad when we couldn't pick trilliums last November.

Although one wouldn't guess she was thrilled by this picture would they?  I think that's the...you've got your camera out again look don't you?

I also spotted these which technically are weeds.  I thought my picture of them turned out quite well.

We went for a long drive on forest service roads today with my dad.  We were trying to find two big firs that he knew about, but didn't know how to get to.  After a short hike for some of us...and considerably longer for my dad who got somewhat...mislocated we gave up on them.  Yes my logger father got mislocated.  He said he'd turn around in five minutes after the rest of us gave up.  His five turned into forty-five.  And we were all getting a bit worried.  It was then I remembered I had my cell-phone, so I called him.  He picked it up...and *gasp* almost sounded sheepish.  He'd come back up to the wrong logging road.  bwahahaha.  I started honking the horn and then called him back and he was able to locate us fairly quickly.  But I definitely amused by this whole adventure!

After that I took him up to my favorite view, and he ended up driving as the road got a bit swarmy in one spot.   We decided to go down another road now that we had a suv and see if it landed where we thought it did.  It didn't but it had a pretty view of Vancouver Island.   We deadended in a log-landing and decided it was time to go back. 

I was driving again and dad looky-louing.   And suddenly yelled, wow that's a big tree.  hang-on back up.  We did and he bailed out.  It wasn't the firs we were looking for, but it was definitely big.

We piled out of the car again.  The kids were getting a bit tired.  They had run down the road for about a mile about ten minutes before that and were just exhausted, and not thrilled.  But I pulled them out and said get a moving.

There was a bit better then deer trail most of the way until we spotted this;

It was pretty big from that angle, but quite frankly I have bigger trees on my property.  But the deal was...is that angle is taken about twenty feet up the tree.  

This is the butt of the tree.  We have NO idea how big it actually is.  My dad will be bringing a measuring tape back. 

There we are eight across at the butt with width on both sides of us.  That is one monster cedar tree!!!

I laid on my back and looked up for this one just to show you how monsterous this sucker is.

Amazingly enough there were four or five big trees in the near proximity this one just happened to be the biggest.

My dad was just so delighted with it.  It may not be the tree he wanted to find, but he was just tickled like a kid that he found this one instead.  We made good mark of where its at and we will be bringing people back to see it.

Country Sunshine if your ever up for a mini-adventure and your out this way give me a ring.  Its only five miles from my house.

Celebrate life tomorrow, because we serve a risen Savior.

Happy Easter!

Digital art is addicting!

But sometimes you do one that just makes you smile, and you have to step back and just enjoy that you accomplished what you wanted.  And then I shut down the pspx2 cause I couldn't improve upon my art for awhile.

Anyhow this piece was like that.  I was just very pleased with its result.  This is a picture I took of rainee and Jer last spring.  

I'm sorry I didn't get these done yesterday...I was fighting off the beginnings of a cold.  And I lost.  Its full-blown today.     Anyhow we arrived at the A-frame about 2 in the afternoon after spending the morning in Olympia watching a baton competition.   The competition was intresting, and I believe the kids are at a competitive level, but will need to discuss with the coach etc, wether we are going to do it.  Anyhow when we got to the cabin it was FREEZING.  And I mean FREEZING.   So mostly we hung around inside.  I went outside with the kids once and attempted to get our kite to fly, and came back with my right ear feeling like I had an earache.  A second time just before dark I sent the kids to go run to the waves and back so they got some wiggles out.  This is them as I watched them from the balcony.  Jer stayed with me.  He had no toleration for the cold. 

The view from the balcony again.  I loved the way the waves were shining.

I bought a pack of cards, and dice.  And I had brought along some army men that I'd picked up on freecycle (a ton of them.)  And the kids managed to entertain themselves inside the a-frame quite nicely.  They liked "playing" house, and the stairs up to their bedroom were a major hit.  LOL

In the morning it was a lot warmer and the party was on as both of my brothers showed with their familys.  And eventually my sister from Portland.  My mom of course was there with her girls.

But before that the kids and I went driving on the beach.  Gotta take advantage of the SUV you know.

The beaches down there are miles and miles of sand, and most of them accessible to drive on.  And we did.  We also did donuts.  *eg*  And then the kids got out and ran along side the suv for a mile or more.  

When we got back people started showing.

The little A-frame got very crowded LOL.  

Joel and I took most of the kids outside and flew kites for quite awhile.

Joel had three steering kites, and I had one normal one, eventually we all froze out and came back inside to eat lunch.  And yell about basketball.  Well some of us yelled.  (My brothers and oldest adopted sister)   The rest of us laughed at how loud they could get.

Some of us fell asleep. 

You have to be truely tired to fall asleep in that crowd!

All in all I think Isaiah felt honored.

It was fun, but it was also very hard as it was only our second get-together as a "whole" family...only this family isn't whole anymore.  Both my mom and I talked on the phone yesterday about wanting to cry as it just felt wrong.  I guess...that will always be lurking their in the corners now. 

We're home.

I'm exhausted.

No major trauma's happened, I just really, really missed my husband.  I'll load pictures tomorrow.

But for tonight here's the view from our cabin we stayed in. 

And you all want closure right?

You want to know the end result of the trial?

Us too.

They got there and there was a very recent ruling that one of the pieces of paperwork that dad had provided had to come through "official' chanels, and not in the form they had.

So the trial has been continued until at *least* the 10th of next month...possibly longer depending on how long it takes the office in Olympia to send this ONE piece of paper.

The ruling is even stickier, because apparently they can just throw him in jail while he waits for trial if his paperwork takes too long.  But the lawyer was able to prove that the wait wasn't his fault, so we are all in limbo.

some more.