Summertime

So, it's finally summer!  Or at least, some days it is.  Our weather has been so wierd this year but we're soaking up the sunshine when it's here!

We invested in a pool this year and got it set up, hoping that we'd have some heat to warm it up.  A couple days was all the kids could wait before they HAD to get in it.  They didn't stay in very long because it was COLD, but when the temperatures finally got about 70° it warmed up and they've been having a ball ever since.

Ahhh....how I love summer.

A Cold & Frosty Mornin'

It's Wordless Wednesday!

Sunny Days

The other night I was coming home around 7:45pm and was treated to this view. As soon as I walked in the door, I grabbed my camera. All around me was dusk, but the mountain was basking in the last rays of the day. It was stunning.

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I got a wild hair the other day and suddenly turned into the love child of Bob Villa and Ciscoe Morris and this is what I ended up with.

It all started a while ago when PW posted step-by-step instructions on how to build these garden boxes and since time was marching on and we were making no progres towards getting our shared garden in the ground, I took matters (and drill) in hand and did my own thing. Hubby helped me with the first one but then I decided one wasn't nearly enough space and built a second one the next day. We dumped in a bunch of topsoil and I got things planted and we are on our way. Next year when we get our big garden going, I can use these boxes for strawberries or my dahlia garden.

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The weather has turned unusually warm for this time of year and I am LOVING it. My housekeeping has gone the way of the dinosaurs because I'm too busy lolling around in the sunshine to care about the state of my floors or the availability of clean underwear. My mind turns to mush when the sun comes out and I am only capable of draping myself lazily on my lounge chair, intoxicated by the scent of suntan lotion. Seriously, it's one of those rare occurences where I am voluntarily still. I just hope we're not getting our summer weather now and will be freezing when it actually is summer. All the more reason to soak it up now, I say!

The Week in Review

Boy, it's been a busy week. It seems like as the days get longer and the weather warmer, life really starts to pick up speed. But it's all good! That's the way I like it.

Here's a quick recap of what we've been up to:

~Last Wednesday Sam's class had a field trip to the local fairgrounds for the Milk Makers Festival, or whatever it's called. In our county, we are surrounded by dairy farms so it was a chance for the kids to learn all about the dairy industry. Apparently the field trip is a yearly event for all the 1st graders around here. It was very well organized, with six different stations where they learned about different aspects of the dairy industry. They even were treated to some chocolate milk. Zoë and I tagged along for the fun and had a great time. I wanted to put this little girl in my purse and bring her home.




~Wednesday evening The Hubby and I went on a date. We had gotten some tickets for a concert thru the college alumni association and figured we'd take advantage. Death Cab for Cutie had come home to do a concert and let me tell ya, for a band I wasn't that familiar with, they were awesome. They killed it. It was a lot of fun and we're definitely big fans now. So cool to see hometown boys gone big. (Sorry for the crappy pictures...used my phone.)



~Thursday was the last class for swimming lessons (of this session) and Heather and I had planned to stay after class and let the kids play in the pool during the Free Swim. Only I'm apparently a big clueless dork of a parent and didn't know/realize that kids under 6 must be accompanied by an adult. So guess who didn't have a swimsuit and couldn't get in the pool?? Thankfully, Heather donned her's and went in with the girls. Next time I'll be more prepared. (Note to self: buy a swimsuit. Oh,and work out.)

They opened up the waterslide during the Free Swim and Sam immediately scrambled up the stairs to give it a try. I was shocked (and proud) at how UNreluctant he was to try it. He's definitely a boy after my own heart. You can see in the picture exactly how fast he came shooting out of this thing! He was like a little blurry water missle! But he never flinched and came out all smiles and saying "That was AWESOME Mom!!" and went right back up. He went up those stairs so many times he ended up with a blister on his toes.


~Friday Sam's class was doing a presentation for the school assembly so Zoë and I attended that in the afternoon. They've been studying the life cycle of a butterfly and did a presentation about that. I know I'm his mother and all, but he spoke the clearest and loudest of all the kids and sounded the most natural. You know how kids get when you put them on stage with a microphone and an audience? I was one of those kids when I was little but not my Sam. I was so proud.



He was all smiles after school as we headed off into the weekend.

~Saturday morning we headed out to our old neighborhood for the annual pancake feed at the fire station. For $12 the whole family filled their bellies and then we checked out the fire trucks.


~Sunday morning we cleaned the house, since it was getting a little disgusting then Josh headed over to help my dad do some electrical work at their new house. It was sunny but a little breezy but we tried out best to soak up the rays. In the evening, the wind died down so after dinner we headed out on a walk.

And met some new friends along the way....

And at the end of the walk, we came home to our own little piece of heaven.

For reference sake, here's a picture of both our house and my parents' new place.

I'm done now. Whew! Happy Monday!

Sunshine on Shoulders Makes Me Happy

If you haven't noticed, I haven't been blogging much lately. Several factors are contributing to my writing delinquency. First, I just haven't been very inspired lately. Second, I've been trying to not be on the computer as much, especially in the evenings, in an effort to spend more time with the fam. Thirdly, the weather keeps trying to get warmer which then translates to me becoming less slothful.

Today is one of those days, where the sun is trying valiantly to raise the temperature above the 60° mark. I'd optimistically purchased some flowers and potting soil the other day so this morning the kids and I got those situated in their pots. Then my dad was over working at his house so I wandered over to see what he was up to. The kids soon followed and in their meanderings, they discovered a whole patch of "flowers" (aka dandelions).

Since I had my camera, I then wandered around taking pictures, playing with the aperture and such. There's a new lens that I'm really coveting but for now I'm making do with what I have.

It was so refreshing to be outside, the warmth of the sun on my back, dirt on my hands, listening to the birds. It's been a long, long winter and we're more than ready for a deep breath of Spring.

Midnight Intruder

I awoke with a start last night, to Hubby standing in the middle of the bedroom, talking to me rather excitedly. It took me a minute to clear the cobwebs and comprehend what he was saying. Something about a tail sticking out of a cupboard and his need for some pliers.

I heard him in the kitchen and my mind finally registered what he was talking about.

The other day he was taking the garbage out from under the kitchen sink and said "I think I see some mouse droppings under here." Oh great. We have mice. When we were still in the construction phase, the garage door got left open one night and after that we started seeing tiny little mouse footprints in the sawdust, as well as droppings. We put traps around and actually caught three or four of the critters. Not too much later we moved in, with our two cats, and haven't had a problem since. Until the other day. We'd been noticing Murphy the cat sitting in front of the kitchen sink, watching the cupboard rather intently too and figured our furry friends were back. So Josh put a trap under the sink.

And apparently we had a visitor last night. Whose midnight adventures didn't end well.

The story was relayed to me that Hubby heard something clattering around in the kitchen and went out to investigate where he saw a tail sticking out of the cupboard door. First he went and got Murphy off of Sam's bed, as backup I guess, and then went and got pliers with which to grab the invading rodent, only to discover that Mr. Mouse was caught in the trap by his leg and not dead. Hence the clattering around under the sink. So Hubby grabbed the mouse and the trap and took them outside, where he tossed the whole thing into a puddle. While Hubby was outside taking the mouse to meet his Maker, Murphy was inside crying and caterwauling about not being able to do his duty and take care of the mouse himself. I appreciate the interest but would rather not find mouse parts scattered all over my kitchen first thing in the morning.

Ah, the joys of country livin'.

Happy Monday!

Winter, Part II

It's a frosty, cold, windy day here at The Red House. The rain turned to snow yesterday afternoon about 2pm and continued on all afternoon and night. Then the winds picked up and the temperature dropped. We get the northeastern winds blowing down out of Canada's Fraser River Valley and they are viciously cold. Weather.com says our temperature is about 18° but feels like 9°. I don't know about you, but that's too cold for me. With the snow and such, school was cancelled today and Hubby isn't going to work, so we're all home together.

Last night Josh and I started laying out and putting up the stone on our fireplace. I've discovered I have quite a talent for applying mortar to stone. I'd slather them up, pass them to Hubby up on the ladder, and he'd put them on the fireplace. This is what we've got so far:

Today, we'll continue getting the stone up and hopefully get it finished. I think it's going to look beautiful when it's all done. I think we'll put some gray slate tiles or something down on the hearth, and combined with the dark cabinets on either side (which are hidden by the tarps), it'll be a real centerpiece for the room. Even just having these few stones up makes the fireplace really stand out, so I can't wait to see how the finished product looks.

I'm being summoned to work so I better wrap up. I'll leave you with this picture I took out my back door this morning. Looks a bit chilly, doesn't it?

Sanctuary

The house is continuing to evolve, with tasks and decorating being done gradually and continuously. I've been working on our bedroom, trying to create a comfortable space for us to relax in.

My goal was to create a beach themed bedroom, with colors that reflected the water and sand. Initially, I'd planned on painting the bedroom blue but after putting the same color on the bathroom walls, I found I couldn't stomach that much blue. It was just too blue. (If you recall, I repainted the bathroom shortly after painting it blue.) So, at the 11th hour, I changed wall colors for the bedroom and was thrilled with the result. Even now, I lay in bed, look at the room and am really happy with my choice. I kind of wish I'd painted the living room the same color.

I still wanted some blue in the bedroom but decided that a blue comforter would provide enough color. I found this set on overstock.com and decided that the print kind of looked like sea grass or something. Whether it does or not, I like it. And Hubby has been surprisingly vocal about how much he likes the room, which I appreciate. I want us both to like our house, not just me.


There still are elements I want to add, and more beach prints to frame, but that will come with time (and money). I'm enjoying creating a space that we can retreat to, one that we are comfortable in and are proud of.

I'm really happy with the way it's turning out. And looking around at it, I again am reminded how incredibly blessed I am and how much I love this new home of our's.

Sunny Saturday

Happy Saturday!

The sun in shining in my windows and I'm happily puttering around my house, doing chores that normally would make me wail and gnash my teeth. But the sunshine makes it all better. That, combined with some Mozart & Chopin blasting throughout the house and I'm a whirling dervish. So far, I've made bread (which is rising and almost ready to bake), cleaned the kitchen, stood & daydreamed out my kitchen window about my garden-to-be, vaccumed and dusted, thrown some laundry in and folded a load of clean clothes. It's amazing how my energy level and motivation skyrockets when the sun is shining. Seriously, if I lived somewhere that was sunny year-round? No telling what I could accomplish.

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I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed (still!) at all I have/want to do. Fortunately, the hard labor of building this house is mostly over, but now comes the maintaining of it as well as finishing up things. Plus, being here has flipped my inspiration switch on big time and I'm constantly coming up with more things I want to do.

I finally whined to Hubby that he needed to do some of the stuff I was avoiding because I seriously didn't have energy to deal with it. Stuff like calling the property management place and getting that whole mess straightened out. (The mess being that they sent us a bill for $450 after we moved out, claiming we weren't supposed to have cats, when we wrote on our application that we had two cats and had been told when we called to inquire about the house that, yes indeed, pets were allowed yet they apparently failed to collect a pet deposit. So they kept the $500 deposit we'd put down AND wanted $450 more. Oh, and they wanted to charge us $100 for the very cheap dryer knobs that had broken. Josh looked them up: they cost $8.) Anyway, he talked to the property manager and got it all straightened out, much calmly-er (is to a word) than I would have and we should be getting part of our deposit back. Phew.

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I owe you some kitchen pictures too, don't I? Well, here you go.

Hope you're having a lovely weekend too!

Beauty

I've been wanting to take this picture for months. And today I finally did.

It was a lovely sunny day and I threw my camera in the car when I headed to town, thinking I might take Zoë to the park after hitting the store. On the way home, I pulled over to the side of the road to capture my house and the mountain. See my house down there in the bottom right corner?

Living out "in the county" now (which is how people refer to it around here when you live out of the city limits out in or towards any of the smaller neighboring towns), I've encountered lots of wide open spaces, wildlife and other scenes that I really want to photograph. For example, there's an old falling-down barn not too far away that I want a picture of. The mountain would be in the background too, so I want to make sure it's a clear day. But even just the barn with some ominous storm clouds behind it would be really cool. There's another shot of the mountain I want to get too, just up the road from where I took this one. Yesterday on my way home from taking Sam to school, I saw two ginormous bald eagles sitting in a cow pasture about 50 yards off the road. I wish I'd had my camera; they were beautiful.

So much beauty out here in the country, even in the dead of winter. I can't wait until spring and summer.