Water Play

Ethan has been waiting to play with this new water sprinkler. The sun has finally come out and we were able to open the box today! As you can see he had a blast!

The Great Outdoors

Every once and a while I have the pleasure of watching my ex-neighbor's dogs. She moved two blocks away and then up a hill to over look the canyon. It has been exciting every time Ethan and I go (three times a day). Yesterday I saw a buck. I could of reached out my car and touched it. Today, I saw three does right in front of the car. We also saw a family of quail. The best part of the drive is the lupine flowers on the side of the road. It is Kincaid's Lupine, an endangered species in the Willamette Valley- at least I think it is...(http://www.co.benton.or.us/parks/hcp/documents/Kincaidslupine.pdf) It is the host plant for the Fender's Blue Butterfly and endangered species as well. Totally awesome... It was so cool to see something that I have only heard about in person. I called the US Fish and Wildlife Services. I will let you know when I find out more...

The Garden In Progress

Work Day

A big thank you to my family and friends for helping at my house for a work day! Josh and Gary helped build much needed stairs off of our back door and deck. Becca power washed a lot! Mom and Dad helped get our yard and trees under control! You can see the finished work in the next post!

Garden Pictures

I am so excited to get my card reader back! Now I can post my pictures that I have been dying to get online. To start out - Here are a few pictures of the garden. I am going to post more since I have been working every day in the yard to get it back in order! What do you think?

A Night Out

I can totally relate to what Kati said about getting time "off" as a mom. Dave surprised me with a night at the movies. I would have to say that it has been a LONG time since we saw a movie in the theatre. I was so excited to break free and join the real world for a few hours. Even though we had a blast and the movie was great, Dave drove home saying, "I miss him." "Me too..." I replied.

Our Little Artist

Today was a lot of fun. Ethan enjoyed playing indoors, had all his naps, ate all his meals while mouthing "mmmm," and then we painted. He has painted with finger paint before and had a little traumatic experience. You know, the paint couldn't get off his fingers fast enough. But this time I bought him watercolors and a watercolor book. I tore out a picture of some animals (he is learning all their names) and gave him a paint brush. I showed him how it worked and I asked him what color he wanted and he told me "blue." Pretty soon he had paint on his fingers and saying, "blue." Before I knew it he had it on his face, lips, and hair!

Good Eats

So Dave wants to cook great gourmet meals but, well you know how it is... the pocket book is a little thin. We went to Costco and got a whole beef tenderloin and took an online course of butchering 101. Dave's opening line yesterday was, "Hey, so do you want to cut up some meat with me?" I have to admit that it was the least romantic. I told Dave, "So, the honeymoon stage is officially over. This is the least romantic thing that we have done together as a couple."

Actually Food Network's "Good Eats" which if you haven't seen before is very educational and entertaining. I laugh every time I watch it. So... if you can imagine us both watching it on the laptop, in front of us is a 2 1/2 foot slab of raw meat, Dave with knife in hand, and me having to pause and rewind every time Dave doesn't "get it." If you have 15-20 minutes take a peek at Part 1...

http://www.guba.com/watch/3000050328?duration_step=0&fields=23&filter_tiny=0&pp=40&query=good%20eats%20tender%20is%20the%20loin&sb=10&set=-1&sf=0&size_step=0&o=0&sample=1212606586:2e77d243eb72d1c97f50ba267ebad5cd363087a1

Cabin Fever

Ok... I have only been off of work for what? Two weeks? I already have cabin fever. I really think that the weather is to blame. I mean really, how long can we go without seeing the sun? It's June already! Give us a break!

So... since we can't get outside and can't go anywhere because gas prices are too high... we stayed inside and I tried to entertain Ethan as much as possible. He seems to be a little under the weather and his rash is back which makes me think that he is getting sick - again. Poor little guy.

We played with playdough, played hide-n-seek, and he wanted to read a lot. He tried to say "squirrel" today and when I made the sound effect for the squirrel he tried to do it too. It was cute.

As for me... I am just wanting to get outside a bit and enjoy the sunshine... whenever that will be.

Back in the Real World

Hooray! Not that it matters to many people in the world but, I am back online. Work is over and summer is here! In fact life is a little less stressful and more enjoyable again. I have been able to spend more time with Ethan, able to get my home back in shape, and I feel like I can slow down and enjoy life a bit more. I miss blogging and reading my family's blogs.

Today was a great day of photography. Dave and I first went to Cascade View to take class pictures of the Kindergarten class. From there, we went into Salem and took pictures of Field Day for the PE teacher (our friend too) Janelle. I was so excited to go I could hardly wait! I was afraid that it would be weird because I haven't been in so long. It was great! I got a huge hug from Alison (the teacher who took over my class) after she ran across the parking lot to see me. I love her energy. Then I got hugs from several other teachers before going down the hall to the daycare. I got tears in my eyes when I heard the familiar sounds of rest time (music, smells of the building, and children laying down). Mrs. Toni was in the Kindergarten Daycare room and she got tears in her eyes when she saw me. I went next door right afterwards to give Mrs. Murphey the biggest hug ever (my assistant). Then I saw Mrs. Read and told Ethan if he didn't behave that he would have to go into the nap room and Mrs. Read would put him to sleep. Afterwards I went into the bathroom to change Ethan and the third grade girls came in and all gave me a hug. It felt really good to be remembered. A lot of children and parents came to me and gave hugs and remarked how big Ethan is now. It really shows that I need to get into town more often. It was a real blessing and of course encouraging.