I'm watching funny things and going to Portland (my quilt guild meeting was last night). So this pretty much took the cake.
Enjoy.
I'm watching funny things and going to Portland (my quilt guild meeting was last night). So this pretty much took the cake.
Enjoy.
December 17, 2010 in Oregon | Permalink | Comments (8)
We had a great weekend. Saturday we picked up Sarah and headed to the coast.
Tuesday spots the big water (her sign for water is a finger by her mouth... she can't quite make the "w" sign).
For some reason the water was quite nasty, lots of foam, so she wasn't able to play in it. But she sure had a blast in the warm sand.
She was covered in sand, but since it was dry it was pretty easy to clean up.
A great weekend.
September 13, 2010 in Oregon | Permalink | Comments (6)
Tuesday Lee loves strawberries. My mom takes her to pancacks early in the morning some days and she always gets her pancakes. I thought it would be fitting to take her picking.
Erin, Sarah and Sciarrino joined us, quite a fun group. Tuesday enjoyed toddling around the field barefoot and sampling as she went.
Aunt Sciarrino showed her how to pick:
Thank you to the girls for joining us. I love that Tuesday is old enough to do this kind of thing. And she wasn't even scared to go potty in the porta potty, even though I was scared to take her. I wish she would pee in the little mini potty I carry in the back of the car!
June 28, 2010 in Oregon, Tuesday Lee | Permalink | Comments (3)
We had a lovely weekend—the sun came out! This coincided nicely with Bj's parents going to the coast, so we joined them for a dinner:
Bayfront dinner with my two favorite people, yes please! And guess what? I ate fresh caught crab (for those of you who don't know I normally don't touch seafood). It was good, that butter helped :) Tuesday got to run around:
Giggling at the wind picking up sticks, rocks and little flowers. We stopped quickly at the cheese factory:
I'll admit this was mainly so I could get root beer ice cream, which is hard to find elsewhere. Mmm so tasty. Bj got to use the Ergo for the first time, he loved it.
Today saw us outside even more—and in our own backyard!
With sidewalk chalk, friends, and some squeaky cheese (cheese curds from the factory). In case you're wondering the backyard looks like this now:
I hope the organic mulch dried out enough in one sunny day to be tilled with our soil so sod can be laid. That's the next step. At the same time a deck (more like a little landing) is being built off of our dining room. I hope we will be planting in ten days or so! Bj finished all the electrical work (for outdoor lights, sprinkles, etc.) today and we are so proud of him for not getting electrocuted! Now he has to built the planter boxes; he's putting his "staycation" to good use :)
I also got a little scrapping in, will share soon. Hope your weekend was fabulous, what did you do?
June 14, 2010 in Family Life, My Garden, Oregon | Permalink | Comments (12)
Earlier this year Bj's parents "cashed in" their photo shoot with Tuesday. Well at the end of last month my mom and step dad did the same thing. We met up outside our beautiful capital in the lovely little grounds that were littered with fluffy pink blossoms. It was brighter than I had anticipated, but I still love the results.
I love taking pictures of Tuesday with all her friends and family. I love taking pictures in general. But it's interesting taking pictures of my mom. I think because we're so close she has no problem telling me something she doesn't like, including her face in some of these. Craziness right? I think she looks gorgeous! She will happily tell you that we often get mistaken for sisters, so she can't think she looks old. Mom you're hot! You're just going to have to deal with your smokin' self and get some of these blown up for your wall!
April 16, 2010 in Oregon, Photography, Tuesday Lee | Permalink | Comments (7)
My neighbor and I took our little ones to the tulip festival today. I had to go after seeing the wonderful pictures on Alicia's blog. I told my mom I was going and she said, "the last time you went you came back with a stick!" I was like, "what?" Yes, she's right though. The last time I went was two years ago and I took a pregnancy test that morning. Bj thought the line too faint so I brought it to ask Michele, who screamed when she saw it. Best reaction ever. This time with Tuesday was much different. For one she didn't really care about the flowers. She's a people person and especially loves little people like her so Aiden had to watch out!
Of course Aiden is a little faster than her...
But she tried to keep up, laughing at herself the whole way. Hearing her run and laugh like that is just the best! I tried to get her interested in the flowers.
But then someone new would walk by and she'd have to say,
"Did you see my cute baby belly?"
All in all a fabulous day. And she only knocked her friend to the ground with an over exuberant hug once. That ended in both of them crying. Ah such is life.
April 15, 2010 in Oregon, Tuesday Lee | Permalink | Comments (7)
My friend Tracy was lucky enough to stay in a beach cottage all this last week and had a few extra rooms. She wondered if our little family would like them to keep her and her little cutie company while her husband had to return to work. Needless to say we jumped at that! Bj had to finish up work, of course, so we didn't get to leave until after five on Friday. It was a super quick trip, but so fun. We picked up pizza at a great little place I can't even find online called Humble Pie Pizzeria (thank you Yelp!) in Lincoln City and headed to the cottage. Lachlan who was almost asleep when we got there eyed Tuesday suspiciously, but finally warmed up to her babbling and toy stealing. We went to bed late and had a little bit of a rough night (teething again I think). But it was all worth it. I was joking with someone who said that it's usually the Oregon Coast, but the Beach if it is not raining. Well we went to the beach alright:
Can you believe that?!?! It was only a three block walk too:
Lachlan moseys down to the beach. Seriously this guy is so mellow and cute it just completely cracks me up—I love him!
Tracy let me try her Ergo. I love it so so much!
I couldn't even feel her in it. I kept asking if she was really ok back there, it is so comfy! The kids loved the beach:
What a long way we've come from the "I don't want one single grain of sand on me" days in Hawaii.
That's right, I guess she's a true Oregonian. Laughing hysterically at the waves and running as fast as she could towards them.
I had to take off her pants because they were getting so messy. I tried to get her to stand on my feet because the wet sand is so cold but she was fearless! These were the best pictures I've ever gotten from this point and shoot (who knew it had a beach mode?) so I had to share a bunch. I took zero today. I didn't think you'd enjoy seeing me slumped over the computer doing inventory/tax stuff—yuck. We did take a walk in the pouring rain to round out our very Oregonian weekend. I hope yours was also full of outdoor wonder—yes to spring!
March 28, 2010 in Oregon | Permalink | Comments (9)
GOOD JOB EMILY - YOU GOT IT ON THE NOSE. THE TREE WAS 97 YEARS OLD.
Remember when I said our power was out? This is why:
Dwarfs their house a bit huh?
This is my neighbor's tree AFTER a whole day of trimming, and it actually looks pretty good here. This giant cedar was neglected by the city (in our town those areas in front of sidewalks are managed by the city), so it got all wonky and out of control. My neighbor wanted a branch cut that was on his house, the city said no and ended up cutting down the whole tree. Um... logic? Anyway it's been quite a process, they've been at it for eight days now.
They come and cut and then in the afternoons/evenings the juvenile detention boys come and cut it up for fire wood and haul it off to give to needy families (when things go on in my neighborhood I like to talk to the workers, but I'm not that nosey, I swear!).
End of the week last week. Tuesday has been loving watching all of this from our little window upstairs. And by loving I mean fully body spasms of happiness. Today was the big day. They still had a few branches to get down.
They used a pulley system to get all of those down, it was actually pretty interesting, but I never got a picture of it. Once they got to this point they used wedges. This was about when the guy got his chainsaw stuck.
Which I found amusing. Until he started hitting it with an ax. I was sure I was going to see blood.
But he got it figured out. Here the tree is all wedged and ready to go.
I also didn't think this idea of using the power pole for a pulley set up was the best, but
it worked. And did this to the sidewalk.
And rumbled our house. But the big show was to come.
I thought it would be a while and all the sudden I look outside and it's like this so I run to grab my camera.
just in time.
boom
I happened to snap this:
The boss drove up just after it happened and the worker there is giving a thumbs up. Of course I had to go check this out myself (Tuesday was napping). I'm sure you want a good scale shot, well don't worry because I am the nerd who is going to fulfill your wishes.
The guy's response to taking my picture? "um, ok." You can't see the guy just out of frame who lit up a cigarette right after the tree came down. Hmm. Of course I had to ask how old the tree was (they weren't going to check!). The guy said as long as the boss wasn't looking, checked over his shoulder and counted for me. He told me his estimate and explained some tree growth stuff. Then he told me that my neighbors will probably have to wait to get new trees planted because he had already planted his allotment (only 250 trees) around town. Boo on that. I'm glad this is down for my neighbor's sake, it was so scary every time we had ice storms and our street was littered with the smaller branches. We all kind of felt like it was only a matter of time.
Oh and I asked what they were going to do with this big log. I thought they would sell it to a mill because it's beautiful cedar. The guy said that no one would come get it because it would cost a lot to get a self loading log truck in here. Plus he didn't think there were any more mills in the area that could take logs this big (forestry is a big industry here but it's a very managed thing so no old growth like this is being cut anymore). So this too will be cut up into firewood for the needy. Now, I'd like to know how heavy this this was! Isn't nature the coolest?
SO how old do you think this thing is? I'm 5'4" (what? I'm wearing clogs!). I don't have a specific prize in mind, it could be a bundle of fat quarters with a tree theme, or some handspun, or fiber or scrapbooking stuff... I have a lot of crafty goodness in here, so I'll quiz you and pick something good. Guess away, if two people guess the right age I'll put the names in a hat and pick one.
edited to add: closest either way wins, and I'll leave this open until Thursday 11:59 PM (pacific).
March 17, 2010 in Oregon | Permalink | Comments (43)
Bj and I decided a quick day trip up to the mountain would be fun... We did not decide to stay up super late, get up again in a couple of hours and stay up for over THREE hours in the middle of the night however (that was Miss Sparkle Pants' idea), so our tiredness put a little bit of a hiccup in our plans. And since I didn't really make concrete plans our fun day of sledding ended up as a short bundle up and walk in the snow. I did score a great sled from Goodwill, next time...
Me and my girl.
Family photo - uh oh dog spotted by Tuesday!
Don't worry about the dog Tutu look at the camera!
Maybe you'd like to stand?
Okay maybe not... well that was fun!
I am very glad I got all her snow gear on super ultra clearance because I don't think she's going to get much use of it! I have no idea where we can sled either, turns out no sledding at Timberline and at the sno park places they make you use their inter tubes. I am so NOT putting Tuesday on an inter tube! Any locals (in a two hour radius or so around Salem) know any places?
February 12, 2010 in Oregon, Tuesday Lee | Permalink | Comments (4)
Tuesday is either teething and it's the worst thing ever, or she's not teething but it's still the worst thing ever. Nothing seems to make her happy, but her fever is gone. Poor girl. I'm going to back track a bit and catch up on some bits of life I missed telling you all about.
My birthday started out in a hotel room in a king size bed with a little Tutu snuggled in the middle of Bj and I. Besides the fact that I fed her cauliflower the night before (because we had it I just pureed it and oh my goodness did her pee smell something awful), it was a wonderful thing. After a post wedding brunch Sciarrino spotted an antique/junk shop in the neighborhood so we followed her there. But more on my birthday loot later. We got home and rested a bit, had lots of kisses:
My lovely little girl always knows just what mama needs.
After our resting we loaded up and headed out to the Oregon State Fair! For those of you new to the blog I go every year. Even last year when I basically just hobbled around and got my picture taken. I have to get the annual portrait. This year:
The first strip was when we first got to the fair, Tutu was asleep in the hawk. Then we went back when she was awake. Oh man her reaction to the flash was so funny. I like the top one on the right where I am dangling her. hehehe These are screaming to be a mini book, right?
I decided to keep Bj's little camera on my wrist and take some actual sight seeing type of pictures:
I think next year we will be entering from the red gate and sticking to the animals and gardens. I'm scared to have a little person who wants to touch all the nastiness. I told my mom this and she said, "I can't believe I took you so young." I asked, "How young was I." "Well you had just been born, so a few days?" OMG Mom! I guess I really have been every year. Once Tutu woke up we checked out flowers.
And animals:
In the big animal barn she was cool looking at everything... until she saw a cow. She started a little crying. It was so funny. Draft horses, cool, goats trying to jump on you, no big deal! But a cow looking at her the wrong way I guess was just too much. I nursed her during a horse show when my dad called to say he was at the fair. I asked where and he said, "Outside the historic horse arena." Well what do you know, we were inside it! So we said hi to him and some family friends. Then off to eat some not so fabulous food (I'm so far away from getting my cabinets. I need to get back on track, 12 pounds is not going to loose itself when I have corndogs and curly fries). Then we headed out through the lights and people on crazy rides:
and a family snap:
The fair has changed a lot during my life, but all of the crazy parts I love are the same. I don't know though, if they get rid of those photo booths I might not come back, it really is my favorite part. So yes, I had a great birthday and I'm excited for my thirtieth year (I turned 29 so I'm in my thirtieth year. This is something tricky Bj and I figured out when I would try to tell him how far we were in the pregnancy, "I'm 28 weeks, but I"m in the 29th week...").
September 01, 2009 in Oregon | Permalink | Comments (11)