This month is going to be particularly crazy, I’ll post on that later though.  Suffice it to say, I will be glad when November is here.  Below is a snapshot of our trip up north,

               This would have been fun to ride!

Someday we will stay here

Vader playing the violin, quite well actually

China TownSidewalk Chalk

Salted Carmel Mocha….yum!!

I’ve recently discovered that coffee, all by itself, without the mounds of sugar and cream I usually add…isn’t quite as bad as I thought it would be!  Wes and I are trying to cut out sugar, flour and dairy from our diet and I’ve found it particularly hard to do this with my tea and coffee.  Tea by itself isn’t bad at all but coffee…that was a tough one.  It took me awhile, but finally I can honestly say that I like black coffee!  Now it is my mission to test out the drip coffee and americano’s around town to find my favorite. 

Unfortunately the coffee I make at home is not very good by itself.  I may need to start buying different beans but have a hard time not just getting whatever is cheapest at Costco.  But if I brew it and don’t drink it, that’s just a waste anyway.

So, not earth shattering or particularly clever, but that is my post for today.  Plain old Coffee.  Try it.

Min and Harvey being cozy

So my first post after a nice long break is about something new I’m trying:  Getting rid of chemicals, preservatives and toxins in my house!  I hadn’t really thought about it before, but apparently some of the things we eat and use in our homes are really dangerous!  Some foods have more chemicals than actual food in them, and some of things we put on our bodies can be just as harmful.   I’ve been trying to buy organic produce, cut out preservatives and chemicals in our food and just eat better in general.  But I didn’t think much about the other things in my home that could be dangerous.

My mom and I!

This blog post is what got me going on this: Identifying and Avoiding Toxins in Beauty and Personal Care Products  It was a guest post from a blog I’d been following which I’ve really enjoyed called Keeper of the Home  You should check them both out, they have great tips and ideas!  Another great blog I’ve found is Crunchy Betty that has fun homemade recipes and ideas to try.

One hungry niece

So I started reading about how harmful some of the chemicals in my shampoo, conditioner, face wash, etc. can be and it got me thinking.  Now if the only solution was to stop using all beauty products altogether, I wouldn’t be so excited.  But, the blogs above have some really cool, all natural (and coincidentally very thrifty) alternatives that I’ve slowly been incorporating.  And the best part is, they have been working just as well as or sometimes even better than the store bought stuff I’ve spent hundreds of dollars on in the past. 

Min being adorably cute

Some of the things I’ve tried making homemade so far are facial cleanser, shampoo & conditioner (still in a transition period with the conditioner, but really liking the shampoo), deoderant (I was a big nay-sayer on this one at first but I like it a lot now), laundry soap and house cleaner.  I am just really excited about trying these things out because they are super cheap to make, super easy to make, and they work really well!  Plus I know that I am not inhaling, ingesting, or absorbing harmful chemicals which makes me smile!

I wish I was there now!

And belive me, I am not at the forefront of this movement toward the natural.  There are so many sites out there with information on this topic!  One other thing I did was go to the Skin Deep Cosmetics Database and look up some of the products I use to see what their danger level is.  I was pretty shocked!  The site will tell you what danger level the product is (from 0-10) and what the specific ingredients are and how they can be harmful.  I actually just got through purging all my beauty products (which I may regret later) but I figured I would be more inclined to make and use a natural version of something if I didn’t have the old one still sitting around.

Actually I just wish it was as warm here as it was in this picture

So that concludes my post.  I encourage you to visit the sites I’ve linked above and check it out for yourself!  And hope you enjoyed the photos (the last two are there because I am sooooo excited for summer to be here!)

I’ve been commuting to Seattle for a few weeks now, and am slowly getting used to it.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say I like it, but I’m adjusting.  It’s not even adding the extra 3 hours in commute time to each day, it’s having to be ready to leave the house so early that kills me.  I love sleep.  I could sleep all day!  Now I have to be in bed before 10 to make sure I’m alive in the morning.  But enough about that, here are some adorable pictures from last weekend!

Let me just say it is really hard to get good pictures of kids in a bathtub, they are so distracted that by the time I snap a shot they are already looking away!  The two above were the only ones I could get, with them looking at me, out of about 15 attempts.  Holly, Emily and I spent the weekend up north with my sister-in-law and her super cute children.  It was fun as always!

My weekend plans are pretty simple:  Breakfast with Kels tomorrow, change the oil on the car, and go see the new Harry Potter!!!  I am so excited, I wanted to go last night but knew I’d be dead to the world today if I did.  So maybe tomorrow I can talk Wes into going with me =o) =o)

And that’s all that’s going on in my life right now, that is semi-interesting anyway.  I’m sure Thanksgiving will give me something to blog about, so until then.

In Flanders fields, the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row on row,

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below…

We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved, and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields…

Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands, we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields…

 

-Lieutenant Colonel John Alexander McCrae 1915

Walk home from work one day

Haircut evening

Richard

Bella

New haircut

Carved lion from Cambridge

The End.

I visited Northwestern University near Chicago and Harvard in Cambridge, to help give a recruiting presentation.  Both campuses were beautiful, and I was able to walk around for awhile and see what there was to see.

Northwestern University

Harvard University

I didn’t take too many pictures, but the buildings were beautiful and the leaves were just starting to change, which made my walk across campus that much more beautiful!

But as I said, I’m glad to be home =o)  Saturday I cleaned up the front yard finally, it was starting to look semi-abandoned, so I trimmed trees and hedges, and tried to make the front stairs look not so overgrown.  It’s hard though to keep the front of the house nice, since 6th ave patrons feel the need to throw their leftovers, empty bottles, dinner plates (not even joking) and sweat pants in our yard.  Each weekend yields new and exciting gifts.  We’ve had lunch pails, mason jars, clothing, half a hotdog bun, and lots of cigarette butts just to name a few.  Anyway, in the course of raking up branches and things, I pulled a muscle in my back and could barely move for the next few hours!  Thankfully it was towards the end of the yard work so I had already done most of the things I had planned.   We had a game night in Enumclaw that evening, and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to go but by that time my back was feeling better and I had some movement, ha ha.  And today it is back to normal, I am so thankful!

We had church this morning and then everyone went shooting afterwards, except me, Carolyn and the kids.  I had a nice chat with my mother in law, and got to spend some time with my niece and nephew who I haven’t seen in awhile so that was fun.

Now I’m trying to catch up on laundry and house cleaning, which suffered somewhat in my absence =o)  And poor Harvey…I was starting a load of laundry and I sometimes add a cup of vinegar to the wash, which I was doing and somehow the cat got in the way and I ended up pouring vinegar all over her, it got in her eyes and she tore off like a banshee.  We ended up having to give her a quick bath to get the vinegar out of her fur and eye (which is still watering and squinty) but on the plus side, she probably won’t jump up on the washer ever again.  I felt so bad for her, I ended up giving her a saucer of milk to ease my guilt.

And tomorrow starts my last week working in town…I will be commuting to Seattle the week after that.  I have mixed feelings about it, but it is what it is and I am grateful for a job, especially one I enjoy!  It will take some self-discipline to get up earlier than I’m used to, to make it the extra hour drive into work.  But Seattle is an exciting city and I’m sure there will be plenty of adventures there as well.

Here’s hoping you have a great week!

There are about 5 different things I could update you on, but of course I don’t have pictures of any of them.  I don’t know why I bother to carry my camera with me everywhere when I don’t use it!  So here are a few pictures of the events I did actually capture.

Luke & Khalia hosted an 80′s party for Luke’s sister Heidi, and so here we are in all our 80′s glory!  And yes, those are genuine LA Gear high tops, courtesy of our local Value Village.  They are not comfortable, let me just say that.  Sports shoes have come a long way since those were designed.

We went camping at the ocean with Kelsey and Aaron, and I only got photos of the guys!  Also, I’ve been attempting to use photo editors and so this is the result.

Once again, the cat.  I realize I put lots of pictures of Harvey up, but until we have kids you’ll just have to live with it.  Sorry!

Other than 80′s parties and camping, I got to see Cirque du Soleil, which was amazing!  And Wes and I went to the fair with Kelsey and Aaron where we ate scones and Earthquake burgers, looked at farm animals, saw people’s weird collections of things, had free samples of chocolate milk, did not get suckered into buying anything in the expo hall, got rained on a bit and then left.  It was a Saturday well spent.

This week should be nice and quiet, nothing on the calendar that I know of.  I’m working on tidying up the house and keeping up with laundry, and trying to keep our tomatoes alive.  The plants keep toppling over since they are so tall and heavy now.  We’ve had a few ripe tomatoes off of them though, and I’m waiting on the carrots and squash to be ready next.

Until next time.

It’s been a busy couple of weeks and thus the title of this post.  I have just been trying to catch up with everything instead of always lagging behing =o)  Chris graduated high school, and I realized its been 7 years since I graduated, which means its been 3 years since I graduated college, which means I’m supposed to be an adult now right?  Right

Well, we are all moved in and unpacked and the house is starting to look like people actually live in it!  The garden has been planted, and I was rewarded today with some very tiny lettuce and radish sprouts.  It’s so exciting to see things grow, things you planted, on purpose!  If all goes according to plan, we will have a nice variety of veggies by the fall, and then we’ll have to eat them. =o)

Now that I’m reading through this, it’s all very random and I don’t know where I’m really going with anything, I just like to ramble.  So I’ll stop here.  Also, Harvey has jumped on the kitchen counter for the millionth time today and is starting to make me angry.  I just have to keep telling myself she’s only a cat…yelling doesn’t help

This week some fun and exciting things happened.  Wes and I decided to move to a bigger place, a rental house instead of just the top floor of a house.  So we’ll be moving at the end of the month, and we’re excited!  It will be nice to have our own place, with our own yard and everything.  We’ll see if I’m still excited in 6 months after yard work though =o)

Friday night we had two birthdays to go to, both in town thankfully!  We had sushi for Tim’s birthday and the Hub for Amandas!  FYI the Hub has $5 pizza’s during their happy hour, and they are sooooo good!  And they feed two people for dinner, or probably four as an appetizer.  It’s such a good deal!

Wes’s Red Dragon sushi plate…I opted for something a little less intimidating

We celebrated Gabriel, Nathan and Wes’s birthdays yesterday with a costume party for the little guy and a barbecue for the two men.  Gabriel was a cowboy and Abigail was a bumble bee.  It was adorable.

The cowboy

You can see there was also a lady bug and ballerina in attendance

I didn’t get a good shot of her as a bumble bee, but she’s cute anyway.

Wes starting the barbecue, Gabriel watching in awe

So after filling out rental applications, giving notice to move and going to 3 birthday parties, we are definitely enjoying our day of rest.  Harvey on the other hand is on some sort of kitty crack and has decided to terrorize the living room, making it nearly impossible to read my book, drink my coffee, type on the computer or fold laundry without her in the way, ha ha.

Happy end of the weekend to everyone!