06-30-12

Oops, almost went to bed without doing my blog.

Feels like I’ve been running all day, once I sat down I was done moving…

I went out to pull weeds between downpours, and a gentleman walking his dog in the alley stopped to ask me about my straw bale gardening project.

Thought an update photo may be in order.  They are thriving…

06-29-12

This evening I went scrapbooking with a group of church gals. It’s fun to see all their tools, chat with the ladies, and get a few pages done.  Working on last years trip to California.

TGIF!

06-28-12

We had date night at the Bean tonight for an art show.  The three photographers displaying their work are way better at composing shots than Bruce, who has the focal as a stranger… I guess I didn’t give him much to work with…

“ Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow. – Imogen Cunningham

05-27-12

It's difficult to take a photo of yourself walking.  My walking buddy was detained at youth group tonight.

From Beth Moore’s Praying God’s Word Day by Day devotion:

Walking consistently doesn’t mean walking perfectly.  It means we may stumble, but we will not fall.

Cool thought for the day on an evening that cooled off fast.

05-26-12

According to Real Simple magazine, the average American spends just about as much on housing annually as they do on food, transportation, and entertainment combined.

How do you stack up?

We spend about three thousand a year more on food/transportation/entertainment than on housing.  High spending on food (and coffee out!) aside, we purposefully choose to have less house than we can qualify for and spend more on trips and adventures.

And which category do the cable and internet bills fit into, anyway?!?

06-25-12

Do you have a porch light?  Do you use it?

I went to a Highlands Neighborhood Association meeting tonight, and one of the things on the three year plan is to focus on getting more porch lights on as a way to improve safety and neighborhood community.

National Night Out is coming up in August… I have two competing neighborhood events that evening, in my home neighborhood and adopted neighborhood.

06-24-12

We did a family bike ride to lunch today.  I rode Anastasia’s bubble gum pink beach cruiser, what a hunk of noisy and hard-to-pedal junk!  We made a quick stop at the community garden to let Xander, who prefers riding on the sidewalks, catch up.  We got rained on the way home, thwarting afternoon plans to paddle board and garden.

06-23-12

Xander decided he’d rather eat a banana than leftovers for dinner tonight.  C'est la vie.  Not sure why I’m the only person in this family who actually really likes leftovers…

We had a quiet day at home today.  I left the house for lunch, church, and weeding and walking when there was a break in the rain showers.  Otherwise it was household chores and projects on the computer.  A welcome break from our usual breakneck pace.

06-22-12

June is starting to wind down and I don’t yet have any exercise related photos for my Move More Eat Well class, so here goes…

Here’s my fitbit.  Showing me over 13,000 steps for the day, with little feet graphics to let me know it is in step mode.

Without it, I would climb less stairs.  It also motivates me to walk more, to get my daily steps over 10,000. It shows me odd nighttime movement (half hour of moderate activity at 4am that I slept through) and thinks that my average annual actual sleep allotment of just under 7 hours is adequate.

It doesn’t feel adequate, I’m saying TGIF!

06-21-12

The boys are back. The gang of fridge raiding, water loving, athletic short wearing guys that have been in our lives since elementary school days.

First we had to fish them out of the lake – lack of life vests and parental supervision.  Here they are playing Russian roulette with water balloons.  Xander dropped the last water balloon.

Ah, summer fun…

(P.S. I had to adjust yesterdays post; Bruce pointed out that I had my facts wrong.  Oops!)

06-20-12

Typical annual vacation time in the U.S. is 15 days.  Japan offers an average of 20 days, which is my current vacation allotment.  In the spirit of using it up, I was able to take this afternoon off.  For meetings and an allergy shot, living large.

Typical annual vacation time is highest in France, at 30 days.  Next year I'll jump up to 25 days (at reaching 18 years of service), but don't ever expect to see 30.

“Vacation decreases sick time and increases productivity.” – expert

06-19-12

Ode to our last family dinner… for a long time.

Anastasia heads out tomorrow morning, getting back July 3^rd, then the Fischer clan will be here, so it will be awhile before it is back to normal family dinners with our complete little nuclear family.

On the menu tonight: polska kielbasa for the meat eaters, left over chili, corn-pepper-coleslaw, and veggie muffins.

Notice that Xander is the only one with his plate dished up.  That is typical too.

Bon appetite!

06-17-12

Monday always seems to roll around so fast!

Evening plans: find the scrapbook of a Yellowstone trip to show a co-worker headed there soon, get 10,000 steps and 10 flights of stairs, check Anastasia’s packing for Montana, and pick strawberries.  The slugs are feasting, but at least year they’ve left some alone!

Wish I had time and energy for more, or could teleport myself to the Tacoma evening book club meeting for Patron Saint of Liars, but thankful for the time and energy I do have.

06-17-12

We Fischer’s headed different directions on I-5 this weekend, the guys heading north to celebrate Fathers Day with horse races with Bruce’s family.

This evening we all reunited, debriefed our different weekends, compared new ipods, and went to Burgerville for a free strawberry shortcake.

Happy Fathers Day to the special dad in our life, and all the other dads out there!

06-16-12

This is the Elizabethan outdoor theater.  With cornstalks, because Merry Wives of Windsor was modernized and set in Iowa.  8:30pm showing, so we rented blankets, but used them for cushions; the weather was fantastic.

Shakespeare Festival tips:

• Seeing multiple plays in the same theater is fun, to see the complete set changes.
• The back middle are the best cheap seats, but the front row far right is an interesting perspective and not as bad as it seems.
• Walk around during intermissions – 3 hours is a long time to sit!
• Park in the neighborhoods around the theater, for free.  Don’t expect other entertainment in Ashland – food and plays and more food.
• If they offer a production with multiple plays combined, pick that one.  Meda/MacBeth/Cinderella was fantastic!
• Three plays felt like the perfect number.  Some folks we talked to were there for five.  I think two would’ve left it feeling undone.

We both enjoyed our weekend and agree it would be fun to do again ina bout 5 years.

06-15-12

Friday I worked a half day, then Anastasia and I embarked on our Ashland adventure.

How long does it take to get to Ashland?

Google says 5 hours.  I added 1.5 hours.

I didn’t realize we were going almost to the California border!

We just barely made it!

Traffic in Portland by 2pm.

Stops every four hours for DayQuil.

Gas stop, since we didn’t start on Full.

GPS couldn’t navigate to motel, only time to grab keys, not drop stuff in room.

No parking in Ashland!

But we made it!  It was a late night, but and Romeo & Juliet Shakespearean cowboy style was very well done.

06-14-12

I was wondering what I could photograph today for the blog, when I saw my father in law’s photo blog.  It’s Flag Day!  Just another work day for me and a busy running around day for Bruce, but it is indeed the day to commemorate the adoption of the US flag.

With 4^th of July and a trip to WA D.C. coming up, I’m guessing we will be seeing a lot of flags next month…

“I believe in America. I'm one of those silly flag wavers.” - Paul Prudhomme

06-13-12

I took a whole mess of photos today, but most of them were of the new house for our property condition files.

But I did take this photo of the “work crew”.  Ha ha ha.  Xander made $20 pulling morning glory.

Will be sad to see Mom and Jerry depart tomorrow, but will be good to get another set of tenants moved in.

06-12-12

School’s out!   Bruce thought he should be in the background crying.  Life’s changing a bit.  But, Anastasia has swim practice every morning she can make it.  Buffet lunch at Pizza Hut – its tradition.  Xander headed to the YMCA to celebrate with friends.

In other news, Molly is six years old today, Mom & Jerry and I explored our local thrift stores this afternoon, and we may have a tenant.

06-11-12

I got off work early today and mom and I headed straight to the lake to paddle board.  It was a little warm, but a nice outing.  Then at dusk we walked a loop of the lake.  The weather is perfect, but cooling off fast, and feels like the forecast of incoming rain is true. 

06-10-12

We squeezed in a day trip today.  One kid is sick, another spent the day at church instead of with us, but we headed to Mt St Helens.

Johnston Ridge Observatory, Forest Learning Center, and lunch at Hoffstadts Bluffs.  We remember the eruption, but it is so easy to forget how truly momentous and powerful it was.

Sounds like we picked a perfect day – it wasn’t overly crowded and it was a clear warm day.  Needed coats and saw snow at Johnston Ridge, but sat outside in the sun at lunch.

06-09-12

Mother- Daughter time.

Walmart shopping trip for urgent groceries and rental items

BLAT sandwiches at Laughing Hyena (Bacon Lettuce Avocado Tomato).

Scrubbing bathroom and kitchen at the rental

Church services at the Electric Bean

Veggie Burritos at Las Rocas

Lake walk

And this was our quiet at home day! 

06-08-12

Mom and Jerry arrived on the train today! 

After dinner we took the whole gang and headed to the newest property – we just got the keys this afternoon!  We have a short punch list on this one; ready to start taking applications now.

TGIF, hope the rain lets up this weekend!

06-07-12

We stopped the daily trek to the pool for the girl.  Now the daily trek to the sports center for the boy starts.  When the weather is really good they practice at the school, at least.

And so starts tennis.

Not as dynamic as my father-in-laws daily photo, but Xander has a new cool shirt he won in a raffle!

06-06-12

It’s the end of the school year.  Final countdown to next Tuesday.

One thing that is near and dear to my heart is the yearbook.  This year the high school (RA Long) yearbook cover is unique, composed of many smaller photos, like my birthday gift.

“Cherish your yesterdays; dream your tomorrows; but live your todays!” – Unknown

06-05-12

The weather isn’t good enough to paddle board.

Bruce is pending too much on coffee.

Anastasia is spending way too much on school lunches. 

Xander is determined to be wherever I want to be.

But my Relay for Life meeting ran short.

Nobody complained about dinner.

And I FINALLY took the chickens out of winter storage.

06-04-12

An update on the hay bales project.  Since every time I say hay bales Bruce says “aren’t they really straw bales?”… for the accurate people… An update on the straw bales project.  

I need to thin out the starts, they are happily growing.  I’m going to try to transplant some to areas that aren’t growing as well.  You can see the ugly mushrooms I’ve been battling (in the bottom right), but they are easy to pull out.

The areas I covered are doing much better than the exposed ones, so guess next year I’ll be investing in more seedling covers.

"Where you have a plot of land, however small, plant a garden. Staying close to the soil is good for the soul." - Spencer W. Kimball

06-03-12

Meet Fred.  He was our gracious host this weekend.  He gave me pointers on where to jog, teased us about our campfire s’mores mess, drove shuttles to the falls and chapel, blessed our meals, gave me a scoop of ice cream the size of my head, and took a million group photos for us with various cameras.

He is standing at the foot of the cross from yesterdays photo, in front of the chapel where we worshiped this morning.

06-02-12

We gaze in humble adoration….

When through the woods, and forest glades I wander,
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees.

So many great photos today, hard to choose. But this one stands out.  It looks like the deer is standing admiring the cross, reflecting on all that Jesus did.  Really he is keeping his distance from me as I creep to get a good shot.

Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art.
Then sings my soul, My Savior God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, How great Thou art!

06-01-12

This is my “oh crud, it’s bedtime and I haven’t taken any photos today” photo.  Trying to capture our pajama party at Falls Creek retreat center near Raymond, WA, where I spent the weekend with amazing ladies from Valley Christian Fellowship.

It’s coincidental, but several of the ladies in this shot are women that I spent a big chunk of my free time with – roommates, table mates, and walking buddies. 

Oh, can you see me reflected in the mirror?!?