Good morning!

It was a eventful yet quiet weekend.  The kids enjoyed their first baton routine, but the coach definitely wore them out to an absolute frazzle!  Part of that was our fault as we'd grocery shopped, etc beforehand.  We won't be doing that again.  They only get the lessons every other weekend its not fair to them to be dead tired before it starts.  The coach was wonderful, and pushed the kids hard. 

Kaylin was an emotional basket case during most of it.  She does that when she can't get something instantly.  Just melts into a puddle of sadness.    She had never met the coach before and was nervous etc.  And when the coach pushed her to learn new things she got scared.  Its fairly normal for her.  She has the option of quitting, but never ever wants it.  She just works through the tears.    We discussed afterwards there was nothing to be scared of and she shouldn't be so hard on herself.  We'll keep talking about it, and helping her with what she couldn't get, so hopefully that will help.

I'm headed to Seattle tomorroow for an appointment for Rainee at Childrens.  Of course we're low on money.  This is normal.  Rob was depressed about it last night, and there was little I could say. 

We brought Sam's new dog home Friday she's fitting in quite nicely.  I have a picture, but haven't gotten it off my camera yet.  She's a Great Dane, and very cute...if not intensely clumsy at her 6 week old age.    

Other then that just really really enjoying the nice weather we've had for almost two weeks.  Amazing weather!

Its not a get rich quick scheme.  But I finally stopped at Joyce G with my photo cards in hand last night, and she ordered TWO DOZEN of them.  She wanted a little write-up thingy to explain what they were as well.   So by next Wednesday I should be able to deliver two dozen, and come back with a wee bit of cash.  I'm not selling them for a lot.  $1.00 a card.  Which means she can sale them at $1.99 and make a nice profit.  Since I printed the photos out for 12 cent a print and the supplies to make the cards about 10 cents.   I'm still making a nice little profit.  She said yes so quickly, and gave me some excellent ideas as to how to "sell" myself, that I might try a few more places in the months to come.

In the meantime it gives me more excuse to play.  LOL 

And tonight while working on the little write up I wanted a rather bland back-ground picy to put behind it.  I grabbed a wave picture that I took in April.  And had the other files from that day open in my organize in psp.   As I finished the file and was getting ready to shut down I took a second look at a picture I'd taken and was suddenly inspired.  It had been quite dark, and just not "right"

This is how it looks now.

The fun begins!

Awana started last night.

Baton lessons in PA start Saturday.

I made the adverts to get our Clallam Bay team up and running, now I just need to get them copied and up.

Its kinda funny because even with all of that I think it will be more relaxed then last year.  Because last year I was running to Port Angeles a MINIMUM of twice a week.  Thats a 3 hour drive twice a week that I don't have.  *cheers*

Baton lessons in PA will be twice a month is all.  With possibly one trip to Olympia a month.

Hey Dee.  I WILL be visiting down there sooner then later.  As that's where the coach is coming from. 

My birthday was low-key but fun.  Rob gets major brownie points for getting me a suprise birthday gift, that fit, that I didn't ask for!!!  If you knew how terribly badly awful he usually flunks birthdays you'd be know why this shocked me.    Anyhow he purchased two lovely new super-sized night shirts.  I'm currently lounging in one.  A girl can always take comfy night-ware.

My very lovely sister also sent me a beautiful lighthouse tray.  It made me giggle because we spotted it in Omak together when I was up, but I chose to spend my wad on the Olympiad books instead.  It was very pretty and I really wanted it.

She's a good buyer!  LOL

My dad he sent me a card bemoaning the fact that he was broke.  Yeah that was a happy birthday. 

And my mom gave me a lovely lamp of hers I've admired for a long time.  (Her beach glass lamp Karla)  It needs to be rewired, but thats very easy, and I've done it before, so tomorrow I'll pick up a lampkit and get it reworking.

fall is here I believe...although I hate to say it out loud.  At least its a beautiful fall, with lots of sunshine.  And today I'm feeling much better and should be able to enjoy said sunshine!

Last night I didn't "just" take fever delusional pictures.  I did snatch a couple around my yard/property as well that I have to share.

the view from my front step.  Rob mowed the lawn yesterday and it just looks so pretty out there.   The sun shining on the wee bit of yellow turning leaves was just glorious last night. 

I headed to the river, and on my way stopped to marvel at God's plan.  Remember my beautiful maple that went down last December.  It was such an amazing tree, 400 years old, with huge branches etc.   Rob and I discussed the fact that we would like to plant another maple there to replace it, and my dad reminded me that maples have a plan--a God given one.  If even part of a maple trees roots hit the ground they will start branching up from the stump.  So here we are.

By the end of next summer we'll probably hardly be able to see that there was a stump there!  The grass hasn't grown back there as it was where the tree fell and dug into the ground.  There were 2 foot deep wallows there that we've refilled, but due to how dry it was in July it didn't grow.  Its starting to come back, and by next spring it will all be recovered.

From here I scooted just a bit right past the tree to the gate to the river.  To the right where you can't see we have campers for the week.  The parents of these campers were here last week, and this week we have the youngers.  The kids are THRILLED as they have two girls...a ten year old and a seven year old.   Of course their gone most of each day on the illusive hunt for salmon, but the evenings are filled with them all exploring together, and they all hit it off pretty much instantly.

The big tree just before the gate.  The post for the gate is in the left of the picture.  Its actually not the biggest of our trees, but I was struck by how pretty it was last night, even if the picture came out darker then I wanted it.

Take three steps forward, and then this is the view.

I love the way you peak through the aldar trees into the river.  Its hard to believe this tiny listless little thing becomes the raging infero that threatens to drown my house isn't it? 

But there it is.  In between bouts of dizziness I just enjoyed watching the water go down the river and all of the sparkles in it.  Water is just mesmerizing.

Eventually I crossed Rob's bridge over to the other side of our property and stepped up onto the river trail.  Rob and the kids were down there somewhere and I hollered trying to find them.  They had been playing hide and seek with Rob.  A first!  I play with them somewhat frequently, but Rob usually wimps out.  This time he came back covered in mud.  I just snickered at him.  And Samuel he hid so long he fell asleep.  Rob thought he'd headed back home and was getting ready to get quite mad at him, when he found him sleeping with his body half/on half off the river bank.  Silly boy.

Just before I found my family I stopped to take a picture of one of the many many green and growing things on that side of the river.  I love these even if I don't know what they are.

See they have babies.  They do that every fall.  They pop out these wee tiny leaves in the middle, and their just cute.

Anyhow that's all the pictures I will share, I took a few others, but they were dark or  blurry for whatever reason.  The sun and shadow made it hard to get the right reading for picture taking.  

We spent last night being lazy, and about 10 o'clock I finally moved the right way to uncreak my neck which made the dizziness go woosh away.  I'm HAPPY!   Today I can enjoy instead of felling like I've been drinkin' too much. 

So last night at bedtime I started getting hot and cold.  Rob figured I had a sunburn.  I took my temp and it was 100.6.  I shrugged and went to bed.  It was a long night of throwing the covers off and putting them back on.  This morning I was still shivering and dizzy, but no other symptoms except the lingering cough I've had for about a month. 

I finally decided taking my shivery body back to bed would probably be the best option.  Rob has a TON of sick days, so he took one, and I headed to bed.  My fever broke about noon time.  Alas the diziness and shakiness is still with me.  And I'm still convinced its really hot...

Oh wait it was 70 today (very hot for around here)  so I am hot.  LOL

Any how Rob and the kids went hiking and I was enjoying the quiet house, but finally wondered if I headed outside if the fresh air would do me good.  It didn't.

But as I headed outside I saw this.

And contemplated wether I was still feverish or not.  The gravel has eyes.

Or I'm amused by the very bizaare!

I'm still thinking on my rug.  I really like it, but I'm thinking it should maybe be a bit bigger.  I have a teensy bit more fabric in shades of blue, but not very much.  Not enough to make even one round which is why I stopped where I did.  It was definitely a fun project, and one that came together quick since I started it last Saturday, and its now almost 6 long by four feet wide!  LOL

we're home from the beach.  It was relaxing, and very very sunny.

All three of my sisters that are still at home came.  My 16 year old sister actually *gasp* wanted to come.

And she was the only one who gave me a birthday card.  My thinks her being pregnant might be mellowing her.  Until she became a teenager gifts and birthdays were always so important to her.  Each birthday she would go through her treasures and wrap something of hers that she thought the other would like.  I still have the wee baby tea set she gave me when she all of 6 years old.

I could almost see that person that I so loved shining through her today.  Is it possible that there's light at the end of the tunnel?

Its very very hot today for September.  Rather shocking and pleasant.

I spent yesterday watching kids and chatting with Rob while he finished the floor.  Its looking quite nice.  I shall have to post a "done" picture when we can go on it.  While chatting with Rob I surfed guard uniform sites to see if I could find something I liked for a team uniform for our new team out here.  I found this.

These our the team colors.  I actually photo edited it to get it in the colors I want.  As they are custom made.

   I think they're going to be very cute. 

And I have two more kiddos intrested in twirling without actually advertising.  LOL

Tomorrow I shall make fliers to send home with the school kids, and put up on the school and post office.  I'm hoping to get the team going by the end of the month. 

Did I mention I have a building to work at...and the building we're working under will be helping us out a bit with the uniforms.  They offered.  Who am I to say no!

I'm so proud of Zeria.  Her reading has been an amazing struggle.  And I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel!  The last 6 months I've definitely seen her improve, but this week proved it.

Over the last 6 months i've purchased lots of different books to challenge her at Good will, which she admitted liking, but never actually read a lot of, with the exception of one set which was very beginning chapter books.

Well this week we enforced a new rule, one which I've tried one other occasions, but would slip away into the night and that was 30 minutes of reading a day.  Zeria started a Pony Pals book on Monday.  Tonight she finished it, and was able to discuss it with me enough that I KNOW she read it.  This is still not a super duper big chapter book, but its such a major improvement for her I'm just thrilled.  Its her first pony pals to finish, and she has several others I bought her and shes looking forward to reading them next!  Yeah!!!!

Other then that it was a beautiful day today.  The kids and I headed to Forks to pick up Grout, and stopped and played at Lake Pleasant for several hours before coming home to make dinner.

We expected Rob to be sleeping away, but when we got home he was up.  I guess the house was too quiet to sleep.  (go figure).  So he made dinner (hamburgers on the bbq)  while I got to take a catnap.

I'm cherishing the last days of summer to remind myself of in February when its rained for 3 months straight.

My mom is coming out on Sunday to celebrate my birthday 3 days early.  I actually thought she wasn't going to come when I first called.  She hmmed and hawed around, and I was already mentally preparing myself for just bagging it.  But finally she decided to opt out of the tenative plans she had and just come.  She can view our floor in progress, and then we're just gonna go to the beach and have a hot dog roast....its supposed to be nice and hot this weekend, but I'll believe it when I see it. 

So here's my rug in process on the new partly finished floor.  We ran out of grout and have to go get some Friday, each tile is 12x12 inches to give you a idea as to how big the rug currently is.

I want it bigger by at least a foot in each direction.

Its slower going now as each round take about 40 minutes.  Its also EATING fabric.  I'm going to do a freecycle add and see if I can't get some freebees of material. 

Its gorgeous outside, and it actually ended up being quite nice yesterday.

I was a busy bee yesterday and added about 5 rounds to my rug...as the rug gets bigger the rounds take much longer to do.  In order to add the rounds I also had to make the rags which took about an hour.  I used all but one ball of the dust ruffles I picked up yesterday.  This rug just EATS them.  But its looking quite nice, and is the size of a bathroom rug at the moment.

I actually want it for my sunroom, so I'm hoping to get it the size of a living room rug eventually.

I had a old top sheet in a light blue color that I never use, and a couple of old table clothes I bought for a project a long time ago that I shredded last night and can use today.

After that I'm totally out of material.  LOL

I'm actually contemplating requesting stuff on freecycle, as I'm sure theirs stuff people have that their not using.  I will also hit the rummage store again on Friday as they had some boxes I didn't go through that might provide some more. 

I think I'm gonna start collecting another set of colors too and do another one as I'm very much enjoying it, its satisfying seeing "junk" material turn into a rather pretty rug. 

I started corn-rowing Zeria's hair last night.  Its about 1/2 done or more.  We have to do it over a couple days as her head gets sore, and my patience runs...low.  LOL

I'm running away for lunch as its Wednesday, and other then that hoping to enjoy the sunshine again.  I take the rug to the river and watch the kids play while I crochet.