My Peeps

AKA - The Grammas

They're here! They've finally arrived. After several weeks of phone tag, a not-so-sure-at-first hubby, an excited, chicken researching little sister and a beautiful, much needed drive in the country on a Saturday morning... our chickens have arrived!

I'd like to introduce to you...

(from left to right)

Blanche, yet-to-be-named and Ercy

So far, Ercy is my favorite. She's a Barred Rock. The chicken web site I've been looking at described them as "plucky" - and she is. She seems to be the most friendly and inquisitive and gets the closest to me when I approach them. She seems cool and collected. I'm not surprised. She is, after all, named after my great grandmother. The other two are Wyandottes - gold and black laced. I was hoping for an Araucana or an Ameraucana but the lady I got them from didn't have any left. They lay blue or green eggs. Wouldn't that be fun? Maybe next year... Blanche is named after one of Justin's grandmas. Because, well.... Justin's grandma kinda looks like a chicken. You know - skinny legs, round body. But don't tell her I said that. I'm letting my little sister name the other one - since she was the most excited of anyone that we were getting them. She's even more thrilled that I'm letting her name one.

Let's see.. what would you like to know? I'm still learning. They should start laying eggs soon. They've already laid eggs but the lady said they'll probably be a bit shocked by the move and it might take a while for them to start laying again. But soon. And not months like it would if we got chicks. From the reading I've done they're supposed to be fairly good layers - hopefully 4 or 5 a week each. Par for Justin, he got to work on their coop right when we got home and got a good start on it. He's going to finish it up tomorrow. He's never built a coop before but I think it looks pretty good so far. Have I mentioned before how much my husband rocks? He always jumps right in to my crazy ideas and rocks 'em out.

I went to check on them in their coop last night and they looked happy as ever.
Here they are sitting on their perch.

Justin's going to put siding up to fully enclose them. The other side of the coop will have a hinged door that opens up right to the laying boxes. He's also going to enclose the bottom with chicken wire and will add a little extra section on the bottom to one side. Then he's going to put a ladder up for them so they can go in and out of their night house. In the end, the whole thing will be sort of "L" shaped. We've also decided to clip their wings - the lady at the feed store told me how to do it. That way we can let them out in our yard to roam around, scratch and fertilize our yard and garden and eat up some bugs.

I was also really excited to find some good feed. I went to the feed store and was a little boggled over what to get. I called my friend Karen to see what she feeds her chickens. Karen is one of the smartest people I know and does her research well. She's found an organic non-soy grain that they have delivered to their house (they have a ton of chickens) and offered to sell us a bag. She says anything that says "plant protein" is soy and that's all they would have at the local feed stores. I was glad to get the information. Karen saves the day again.

So there you have it. Another addition to the very humble beginnings of my dream... Firehouse Farm. We'll get there someday. It's a good start I think.

Such Manners

Steele: Mama, Sesame Street is over. Can I watch Winnie the Pooh?

Mama: Sure.

Steele: All right. Thanks for asking nicely.

The Fair: Rides (Part 1)

Seems we've been busy around here - too busy to get around to continuing on with my fair posts. But the pictures are stacking up on my camera and I figured I'd better get to it before I get too far behind.

We went to a fancy shmancy wedding in Seattle over the weekend that I'll tell you all about soon. Actually, if I'm honest, we really only went to a fancy shmancy reception. But I'll have to get to that later. My mom came down to watch the kids at the hotel. Then Sunday we went to the zoo - where it poured down rain. Only in the PNW people - that's the only place you'll find crazies in shorts and sandals with no jackets, walking around the zoo in a downpour. It was crazy. We were crazy. If only my mother would have listened to me and agreed to go to the Science Center instead. One of these days she'll learn that I'm always right... (heh heh)

This was Steele's first year going on rides. In past years, he never even knew they existed. We just completely avoided that section of the fair. I planned it that way... I knew his day would come. Cause you know, once you start there's no going back.

Steele had the same perma-grin on his face on every single ride he went on.


Justin gets the award for best carnival dad ever. His family literally used to take vacations just to go on rides - he's game to ride them all day with the kids. In "Rides Part 2" I'll tell you why I will never receive that award (aside from the fact that I'm not a dad).

He's a crazy man. A cute crazy man.


And now - my favorite carnival ride picture of all time...

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
It pretty much cracks me up every time I look at it.

Pooh Time

My mom gave us a bunch of old videos recently. Much to my surprise, Steele's favorites have been a set of four Winnie the Pooh movies. He asks to watch them over and over again.

This morning, just as I was turning one on for him, his eyes got wide and he turned and ran saying, "I have to go to the bathroom!" After some banging and rumbling around he came running out to the living room with the potty seat and started to plop it down right in front of the tv....

Directing him to take it back into the bathroom, I promised I wouldn't start the video until he was done. You should have heard him when the pause automatically went off on it's own and he was still in the bathroom.

After all, a boy certainly wouldn't want to miss any of his Pooh time.

Paint Heaven

This was me only a little more than 24 short hours ago.

It's hard to smile when you have bubble gum peeling off your walls in big strips and your muscular, patient, scraper wielding husband isn't due home until the next day....

But today? Today? I have died and gone to paint heaven. Because you see, after the husband has returned home and a little more scraping and sanding has been accomplished...after one coat of primer has been applied over the whole kitchen and my sweetest ever neighbor has shown up with a Starbucks mug to match my new paint and some good conversation to lighten my mood.... I have this!

Vintage Map! I knew I could count on you Martha!

And sorry Posie, but your River's Edge blue? It sucked. At least in my kitchen. I love you but the paint was hideous.

But Vintage Map? Glorious, wonderful, beautiful, cheeful, retro-ish, "vintage-y" Vintage Map?
Rocks!

And it even looks decent with my dark brown 70's cabinets with the handles in the middle of the doors. You know, just in case I don't get around to painting them for a while...

A Few Thoughts

I know you're all waiting for the next fair installment... Unfortunately, for some reason I couldn't fall asleep until 4 am last night so I'm pretty sure nothing I write tonight is going to be worth much of anything.

On some side notes:

1. I finally found a color for my kitchen and I am so excited about it. Once the process (which is too depressing to start into tonight) is over it is going to look awesome!! I will give you a little preview though.

2. I'm having personnel problems yet again. It never ends I tell ya.

3. I had a revelation this week about blogging. It's this: As long as you present a near perfect image of yourself - an image where you don't express any of your possibly controversial opinions or reveal any flaw in your character, people like you. Otherwise, they bash you. It's true! Why did I just now realize that? And why was I even thinking about it so much?

4. Sometimes Steele is a little rascal. And sometimes he kisses me on my hand (or on my leg, or my shoulder, or my head...) and tells me, "I'm sorry I disobeyed you yesterday, mama." Or... "You did a good job painting that, mama." Or.. "Thank you for giving me chicken nuggets for lunch, mama."

5. I love that Adia calls nectarines neckaneens.

6. I also love that Steele asked Justin if he was going to sleep on the fire engine tonight. And after that he asked one right after the other, without missing a beat:

• What station are you at tonight, Papa?
• Are the meggics (medics) there?
• Is the fire engine there?
• Is the ladder truck there?
• Is the chiefs car there?
• Are you driving the fire engine?
• Are you driving the aid car?
• Are you driving the chief's car?
• When you come home can we work outside? If it's raining we can put on our coats.

7. Our van is in the shop again. That's all too depressing to start into also - which is why I haven't brought it up here before. I can't even remember the last time I drove it for more than 2 days in row. Not even joking.

8. We're going to a fancy wedding this weekend. We're bringing my mom and sister and brother down to watch the kids. Then my mom and I are taking all the kids to the zoo on Sunday. Should be a fun weekend.

9. Do you guys read Pioneer Woman? I know, everyone does - so I hear. But if you don't, you should. She pretty much rocks.

10. I feel like I should think of a 10th thing - just to even it out.... but I can't think of anything. I need to go to bed now.

Livestock (Cont'd)

Well, you'll be glad to know that I am not sitting in the church nursery writing this post. Unfortunately, I'm sitting at home with two sick kids. Steele came into my room crying this morning with a croupy cough. Both he and Adia seem to have it. They've been doing better as the morning's gone on and after I got some steam going in the bathroom but I still thought it a good idea to stay home so as not to infect everyone else. Thank goodness for my mother who was willing to sub for nursery duty - even though she was a little nervous her pre-colonoscopy meds might kick in.... uhh.... yah. So since Adia's back in bed and Steele's watching Veggie Tales I thought I'd use the opportunity to carry on with my thrilling topic.

Livestock....

You should be glad that I took that little time out. It gave me time to do some research. A lot of kids from our church show animals at the fair. They either own them themselves and prepare them to show or another family lets them borrow animals to show. We arrived to the fair one day just in time to see our friend Jan show his cow. Jan is the oldest of 5 boys from our friends Hans and Colleen. Hans and Colleen own and operate an organic dairy farm of Jersey cows. You'll remember Colleen - we were on a quest together to find a new hair stylist after ours moved to Iowa? Hold on - I need to go put her on my blog roll. She was hassling me about it just the other day. There. Done. (I would put *wink* here but since I can't actually wink in real life I don't think that would be very genuine of me)

Anyway, here's Jan in all his cow showing glory:

Here's Jan watching the judge very carefully. While doing my research, Jan told me that part of what the judge looks for is how well the kids control their cows. They have to watch the judge - go when he motions to go, stop when he motions to stop. When they stop the kids have to get the cow's legs arranged so that their udder is visible.

I liked this picture 'cause he's under the Jersey sign.

Having a little trouble here. Good thing the judge isn't looking. Phew.

To be honest, I can't tell you how Jan did overall. I will tell you, though, that he's a super nice kid - not to mention awfully cute, don'tcha think?

While we're on the subject, Jan's brother Per showed us his cows. He even let Adia sit on one. She wasn't too sure she liked that idea.

Adia: Why I oughtta....

She really wasn't so sure she wanted to sit in the hay. (I actually think it's technically straw)

Steele: Um. Mother? Adia kindly asks that she be removed from this hay pile. It's quite disconcerting to her. (He doesn't know it's actually straw)

Well, that's all I have as far as livestock goes this year. Stay tuned for our next exciting edition of the Fair 2008: Carnival Rides. If nothing else, you're sure to get a good laugh.


While I'm here, I've been meaning to comment specifically to each of you regarding a few things. You're always so nice to comment and I don't generally have time to comment back individually - but please know that it is such great fun to hang together in this bloggy world. You always bring a smile to my face.

So let's see...

Everyone: THANK YOU for all your spot cleaning advice. Time and time again I have heard OxyClean. So I'm going to try that out first and see how it goes. A friend with 5 kids also mentioned to me last night that she uses Zout too so I think I'll try that. She resells her kids' clothes on e-bay (just like Sarah!) and has great success. I'm kind of a natural girl at heart so I also liked Michelle's suggestion of hydrogen peroxide. And I LOVE Elizabeth's line drying tip - it's pretty difficult here in the Northwest though as we have so much rain. I'd have to watch every moment in case it started raining so I could run out and take down my clothes. Not to mention my allergies - Amy calls line drying, "pollen-catching." I'm going to ask Justin to hang up my clothes line again though.

Sarah: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! Sorry. That's what I did when you asked if we had air. I couldn't help myself. Pretty much nobody has air conditioning around here. We only need it once or twice a year - and then it's miserable. I definitely should have called Amy yesterday and brought her some food. You know, just to be a good friend and all.

Rebecca - I'm always so thankful whenever you leave a comment. So sorry you were up last night. It's been thundering here in the last couple hours. Weird.

Amy: I'm not sure if you were pregnant or not in that picture. Not that I think you look fat at all. It was when you guys lived up here in the apartment. Did you have Aidan then? I think so. Sadly, it was the night before my Grandpa had his stroke and then died at the end of the week - early January. And you are so right - gotta bring your own food just in case there's nothing else good. Also, I've been meaning to tell you that the reason I haven't commented on your "blog" is because I wanted to respect your non-bloggingness. But I will if you want me to - 'cause you know I always have something to say. Like: I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU ARE DOING FLIPS ON THAT TRAMPOLINE! You're gonna break your neck.

Jodi: Can you please post more pictures of our Gazelle days? Seeing as you have so much spare time lately. It's so funny that you posted that one because I was just about to e-mail and ask if you could send me some. Are you still enjoying your Mrs. Meyers?

Martha: Man, I've missed you! And yes, Adia's hair is coming in slowly but surely. I just had to cut off her mullet the other day. My grandma was so mad at me.

Mom: You crack me up. Hope everything's flowin' ok.

Michelle: Thank you for being a faithful reader. And I love that you always think my kids are so cute. ;-)

Lisa! Get on over here and read all the nice things I said about you! ;-)

Kate: Thanks so much for sending the bathing suit information. I still haven't bought myself one... I know. I'm a loser.

Christine: I just love you. I hope you're sitting by the lake sipping a margarita or something.

The Fair 2008: Livestock

I thought long and hard about how to present my fair posts to you this year. (Since I know you're all waiting on pins and needles to hear about it...) But don't you worry - I think I've come up with a solution. Today? You get....drum roll please.... livestock. I thought I'd kick things off with the most exciting part of the fair first...

Before I do that though - can I just say that today was the hottest day ever!! Now, temperature-wise it really wasn't the hottest day ever - that just mighta been the day of Steele's first birthday party - it was seriously like 100 degrees or something that day. But today was hot. As I was sitting at the Washington Child Identification booth - trying not to dwell too much on what I was doing - I literally had buckets of sweat dripping down my face. I sat there the whole time thinking to myself, "What am I doing here? I live freakin' 2 blocks away and I am still here!! In this miserable heat! I should just go home.. and I'm not!!" I did eventually go home though. And then I went back.

Anyway... on to the livestock.

Here's us in the poultry barn just after I put my name on the list to buy chickens. Don't I look happy?



Alright. Time out. Sorry to give you a teaser but it is SOOO stinkin' hot in this house. I have a whole slough of pictures to show you but I just cannot bear to sit here with this warm computer on my lap any longer. I'd love to tell you that I'll be back tomorrow but I think they're saying it might be even hotter. Maybe Sunday? Do you think it would be bad if I blogged while on church nursery duty? Hm. Maybe not such a good idea. Don't worry though - I won't leave you hanging for too long.

Please send cold wishes my way.

4 Things... 4 Coastal Nest

Lisa over at the Coastal Nest tagged me the other day. Ya know her? She's the one with the hot mailman husband, BV. She also has the cutest little beach cottage on the Washington coast that the two of them remodeled together - it's for rent if you're interested. I might take her up on it one day soon here. She has great decorating style, she loves her parents and she has darn cute kids. We don't actually know each other "IRL" but we're both Washingtonians - so she's my peeps.

This one's for you Leese. And it gives me something to write about since it's way too hot here today to wait around for pictures to upload.

So, without further adieu....

Four Things You Should Know About Me Before You Invite Me to Your House (+ some)...

1. I'll bring the food. It's not that I don't actually like your food or that I have extreme food allergies or anything (well, I sort of do.. but that's for a different post) or that I'm doin' the Hallelujah Diet again or anything (please don't judge me by my diet plans). I just like to feed people. Ask my friends Amy and Lara. Amy has a big house and air conditioning and a way cool automatic espresso machine so we like to hang there - and since she has all that and we like to make full use of those friend benefits, I generally bring the food. Lara, our new next door neighbor, and her husband Aaron just always seem to show up right when the food is being served. Hmmmm...I'm beginning to see a pattern here. I'm joking. Joking! I had to add that in though since she's now a faithful MWAV reader. I just like to cook for people - and I'm generally pretty good at it I think. We'll see what Amy and Lara comment about that.

2. My children will call you Mr. and Mrs. (insert your last name here). I just got into a little debate with my aunt about this one. She thought it would be disrespectful for my children to call someone that if that particular person didn't want to be called that. I made the point, though, that to me it's not about the adult's comfort, it's about my children having respect for adults and not seeing them as peers. Now, it's not that I think my children won't have respect for people unless they call them Mr. and Mrs. - I just think it sets up a good foundation of respect. Sort of like calling your priest "Father so and so" or your pastor "Pastor so and so" or like Justin's job - "Lieutenant such and such." It's about having respect for the position. On the flip side of things - I wouldn't require that other peoples' children call me Mrs. Jobes. That's for their own parents to decide. I wouldn't even necessarily consider it disrespectful - it's just what we've chosen for our own family. Just trying to combat, in our own little way, this society of increasingly disrespectful children and adolescents. Ok - off my soap box for now....

3. I'll help you rearrange your furniture or pick out paint colors if you ask me to.... and it will be awesome. But don't ask me to do it for myself. When I try and do it for myself I CANNOT make up my mind. Ask my husband about the 7 or more different paint colors in our kitchen or the 4 paint chips that have been stuck to my childrens' bedroom wall for months now. But for you? It will look great! You'll love it.

4. We probably won't stay past 10 o'clock. If Justin has to work the next day we probably won't stay past 9. He has to leave for work at about 4:30 am. Otherwise, we're just sort of lightweights. Every once in a while we get to drinking (never excessively, mind you) and gabbing with Mike and Amy and we can stay up later - but for the most part we like to go to bed by 10.

And for the obligatory photo - a picture of the good 'ol days. When we were able to stay up past midnight playing darts in the garage and sing Indigo Girls at the top of our lungs.

That's Amy trying to look mean... in case you were wondering.

Adia: 19 months

My family used to quote this poem to me when I was little:

There was a little girl
With a little curl
Right in the middle of her forehead

And when she was good
She was very, very good
But when she was bad she was horrid.

Now, I have absolutely no idea at all why they would say that to me.... but it sometimes reminds me of our Miss Moon. Most of the time she is sweet and light-hearted but every once in a while (and more often lately) she has a fiery streak in her. We don't let her get away with it and certainly want to make sure she has a gentle and obedient spirit - as I turn away, though, I often find myself chuckling at her hootspa.

Two of her favorite people lately are her Aunt Abbey and Uncle Gabe. They play with her and dote on her - they even change diapers sometimes. I shot this video of her and Gabe together the other day - she's like a little monkey. And sometimes she gets their names confused - it's cute.

She's also talking up a storm which often adds to her fiery-ness. She's able to tell me exactly what she wants... and she does. Today on our way out to some friends' for lunch after church she told me she wanted to go to MacDonald's. I think the girl's been to MacDonald's once or twice in her life. What the heck? Funny girl.

This video was take 2 of her conversation with Justin on his way home from work. I love her little voice. I wish I would have recorded her the first time though. As you'll hear, I was trying to keeping her attention on talking to him... it wasn't working so well.

I just had to add this last little clip - if you watch carefully at the end you can see Adia preparing to defend herself as Steele approaches to take "his turn." Oh man...

Tomorrow Morning

I'm going to stay home.

And I'm going to make these. (For like the 100th time since she first posted the recipe)

And I can't wait.

I honestly can't remember the last time I got to stay home in the morning. Today was the last day of four weeks of 8:45 am swim lessons. While I really haven't minded going to them and have actually enjoyed getting out of the house early every morning - I am so thankful for and looking forward to a morning of slow coffee sipping and relaxed blog reading.

Justin's also starting his "four-day" tomorrow. Someday I'll attempt to explain his crazy schedule - but just know that we love four-days around here. Even more, we love "sets off" - we haven't had one of those in a while but I digress....

The fair starts on Monday! Steele was literally squealing with delight as we drove past the fairgrounds on our way home from Jazzercise tonight. We're all set with our week passes, ride passes and demo derby tickets for Justin and Steele. This is the first year Steele will ride the carnival rides. I've completely avoided them for the past three years - I just didn't even take him near the rides. He had no idea what he was missing. I planned it that way. But this year? This year is different - he's rarin' to go. And Miss Adia Moon? She was less than an inch from my face today very seriously telling me that she wanted to go on the carousel. I'm not even joking.

I can't wait though - it's like a mini family vacation for us. All our friends that we never see but who somehow come out of the woodwork during fair week park at our house and I love it. People are swarming our neighborhood, parking everywhere, and while most of my neighbors grumpily avoid them I smile and greet everyone that walks by and tell them to have fun. I love to hear the music from the grandstand and the faint screams of carnival riders through my window as I doze off to sleep at night. I know, it all sounds crazy but it makes me happy. AND! the chiropractor might be parking in our driveway for the week as they're probably going to have a booth at the fair. Eeek!

If I wasn't feeling so lazy I'd post up some pictures. Just wanted to check in quickly but ended up blabbing on and on as usual. Hope you all have a fabulous weekend!

It Didn't Scare Me Per Se...

But one is a little startled when walking sleepily past this guy in her kitchen at 10:52 pm...

Spot Cleaning

Really.

It's not a creative metaphor for some big revelation in my life.

I need help.

With spot cleaning.

Remember these kids?

They make spots. Lots and lots of spots.

And I never told you this before... but I do laundry. Lots and lots of laundry. You don't believe me? Take a look at this:

(I think this was just about the worst it's ever been. Man, my laundry room is dreary)

So, I know I desperately need a new washing machine. My husband is quickly jumping on board with my undercover plan to get a front loader. This might be due to the fact that he had the whole thing apart this past weekend trying to figure out where the dead possum smell is coming from (sorry for that mental picture, it was the first thing that came to mind after reading this post). While it does smell a bit better now, the poor thing is almost 20 years old. It needs to go to washing machine retirement living or something. It's worked long and hard enough.

Anyway, back to spot cleaning. You are all aware of my obsession with ironing. I'm almost as obsessive about spots - and getting my whites bright. Neither of which I am having much success with. And you know who I blame? The phosphate haters. That's right folks. I recently read that it was those glorious phosphates that caused our grandmothers' laundry to shine bright. And mine? Phophate free... and dingy and spotted. Grrrr.

I would love to be able to use these clothes for at least a couple more children. Not to mention the fact that I don't feel I can freely iron these clothes until the spots are out. Crisis!

So what do you use? Help please!

For Amy

Wedge Heels

(because sorry, but I am not wearing them to the pool at 8:45 Monday morning)


New Hair

(because it never looks quite as good when you do it yourself)

Open House: Saturday August 2, 2008

I got this great idea from Stacy over at With Great Joy. And since the last sip of my mojito is gone, Justin is in bed and I still don't feel tired I thought I would have a go of it. Enjoy!

Listening to...
Nothing. I realized lately (a bit surprised at myself) that I really do ok with no noise.

Thankful for...
Aside from the normal husband, children, home etc.... I'm thankful for cute new brown wedge heels on sale from Macy's. VERY ESPECIALLY grateful for an awesome new hair stylist (Yay Coleen! We finally found someone! For months Colleen and I have been lamenting over the fact that our stylist moved to Iowa... but that's a long story for another time), a new hair cut and a facial today gifted from my husband.

In the kitchen...
Stacked up on the counter or food wise? Food wise - leftover tacos and burritos from the taco truck. Stacked up on the counter? Dishes and mojito fixins.



Working On...
A fall schedule for Jazzercise. Boring, I know.

Reading...
Books about raising chickens. I think we're going to buy a few at the fair the week after next! I am absolutely so excited!

In the yard/garden...
My vegetables are growing faster than I can use them. My tomatoes are getting huge and I'm starting to wonder if I need to pick some and put them on my window sill. My first ever dahlias are about to bloom!!

Looking forward to...
The fair and having the Quichua Mashis guys over for lunch for the 4th year in a row.

Praying for...
Chelsea and Jordan
Baby #3 for us - gonna get that adoption profile in again soon!

Excited that...
The fence is going to be done soon and is looking SO great thanks to my wonderful husband who somehow figures out a way to actually do something with all the crazy plans I make.

On my ipod...
Lately? The Mary Poppins soundtrack, The Voetberg Family and Adele. And a little FYI - the lyrics are "In my hometown, memories are fresh..." and not "In my hometown, me and Maurice are friends..." as I once thought. I liked Maurice better....

Tomorrow...
Church and a bridal shower for my friend Carol's daughter-in-law to be. Three children married in 7 months - big kudos to Carol!

When Mama goes to Jazzercise....

Otherwise titled: What happens in the dirt pile, stays in the dirt pile. (and on the camera for Mama to find later)

Swimming Success

Does this look like the face of a boy that cried the first 2 and a half days of swim lessons?

We've actually gotten used to the 8:45 start time every morning.
(ok - so maybe it's an 8:50 start time for us)
Look how chipper Steele is - John Deere goggles and all.

Can't cry for too long with a cute instructor like Elsa.
This session Steele and his buddy Ethan got to be in the same class.

Poor Elsa has 4 squirrely boys this time around.

This girl, on the other hand, would have jumped in head first on the first day if she were old enough.

Rainy Day Fence Building

While many have been dismayed by the rain we've had around this week, I've relished in it a bit - it reminds me of the fall that is coming. I love fall. I took full advantage of being inside - I made soup and cookies, baked honey oat bread and zucchini cake - had the neighbors over for a little red wine to go along with it all. I put on sweatshirts, socks and cozy pants. I didn't have to water my garden. Justin, in true pacific northwesterner style - continued work on our back fence.

We have yet to buy a rain jacket for Adia Moon so we put Steele's old ski jacket on her. Boots on both and they headed outside to help Papa.

This is what Adia does lately when I ask her to smile.

This one reminds me of Sasquatch.