Memorial Day Weekend

:: Memorial Day is traditionally May 30th, and observed the last Monday in May. The day was established to honor the fallen heros who have defended our country. We enjoy freedom today because of the father, brother, son, or husband who never came home. This weekend has also become known as the official kickoff of summer, but let's also remember the true meaning of Memorial Day. 

:: Every Friday before Memorial Day my Grandma and I (and now Anna too) go around to the cemeteries where we have relatives buried and put out flowers. This is my Grandma (Anna's Great Grammy) putting flowers on her parents graves. 

:: Here's a little funny......every year we dig out the weed patch also known as my Grandma's grandparent's graves (my great great grandparents). Well today when we arrive I see this little stone on the corner of the family plot with the arrow......So out of curiosity I step out 8 paces to where E. B. Hyde is supposed to be, and it appears that "Old Eugene" would be mixed in with our family.....I don't know why but this really gave us a laugh. The caretaker of the cemetery came over to chat with us while we were weeding and asked if we knew anything about the stone marker, which gave us another laugh. Now he too is curious and is going to look in to it for us. I looked all around and couldn't find another marker with Eugene's name and dates on it. Sure hope the mystery can be solved so Eugene can be respected properly. 
:: I had to take a picture of the gate, because it is new. This little old cemetery really needs some love, so I'm happy to see there is a new entrance. (I'm starting to think maybe I really do take a picture of everything!....hee hee) 

Hope everyone enjoys Memorial Day Weekend! 

Under Construction

:: To say the least!
:: Anna checking out the heavy equipment.
:: This WAS our road. 
Our road is under construction! It has been an interesting couple of weeks around our neighborhood. There is really only one road that leads in to our neighborhood (unless you count this narrow bumpy road that runs up behind our development as a road.....and when I say bumpy, what I really mean is holes that will swallow your car bumpy!)

Anna and I have been walking down to see the progress....the city is having new water mains put in. 

Green Houses Galore!

What a GREAT day! Anna and I, and our dear friend Linda, went to four different Nurseries/Green Houses today! I guess I was feeling brave by dragging Anna through all of them, but she did really great. Thank goodness almost every place we went had wagons that she could either pull or sit in....whew! (meant for hauling your plants of course, but in a pinch they are great entertainment for your children) 

I REALLY wish I would have taken my camera, because there were some definite Kodak moments, plus the nurseries were all so pretty! 

The above picture is what I brought home today........I had to use some serious restraint, because there were so many nice plants that were begging to hop in the car with us! 

So, with my fingers crossed I am going to say, I hope to get them and some of my MANY seeds planted tomorrow........I say fingers crossed, because it will depend on how accommodating Anna will be with MY plans. She is 3 after all! Sometimes she can't quite figure out why its okay for me to step through the flower bed while I'm planting or weeding, but it isn't okay for her to walk through the flower beds all over my plants....oiy!

The Sky is Falling!

:: This last picture was taken the morning of May 18th, 1980 before the eruption. 
If you lived in the Pacific Northwest on May 18th, 1980 you will remember this date. 

Do you remember where you were when Mt. Saint Helens blew her top?

I was 8 years old playing in our yard waiting for the Fairchild Air Show to start(the planes would fly over our house during the show). I remember it was 2:00 in the afternoon and the sky was as dark as night....really eery feeling. Then, the ash started falling. People didn't know what to think. 

Here are some facts about that day:

May 18, 1980 dawned clear and bright.  It was an amazingly beautiful day for May in the Pacific Northwest.   Being a Sunday, there were only a few loggers, campers and scientists in the area.  Many of these people had been lulled into a false sense of security because of the mountain's recent silence.  Not even the scientists could predict exactly what was to come.   

At 8:32 a.m. a 5.1 magnitude quake struck one mile below the mountain. While there had been literally hundreds of earthquakes at the mountain since March 20th, the unstable north face could not sustain another. Within moments the largest landslide in recorded history removed more than 1,300 feet from the summit and swept away almost the entire north side of the mountain.  The elevation of the mountain dropped from 9,677 feet to its present day 8,363 feet.  What was once the 9th highest peak in Washington state was suddenly reduced to the 30th highest peak.  The intense high pressure/high temperature steam that escaped, instantly turned more than 70% of the snow and glacial ice on the mountain to water.  This massive movement of rock, ash, water and downed trees swept into Spirit Lake and down the north fork of the Toutle River Valley at speeds in excess of 175 miles per hour.

Mt. St. Helens is on an ocean-continent subduction boundary (the Juan de Fuca plate is subducting under the N. American plate). Mt. St. Helens is an active strato volcano. The easiest answer to what caused the eruption is that a body of magma moved into the shallow part of the volcano between the first earthquakes and minor eruptions in March, and by May 18th had become so pressurized that the north face of the mountain failed and this magma was able to erupt. The slow moving collision of the continental rock of North America and the Oceanic Rock of the Juan de Fuca tectonic plate, which is slowly moving beneath the Pacific Northwest is slowly refueling Mount St. Helens for another eruption.  Scientists estimate that there is a large reservoir of magma four miles beneath the crater. 

Sometimes you just have to laugh!

Have you ever had one of those days? You know, where you feel like for every step forward you take you've taken 10 steps backwards. OIY! That has been my day! 

You see I am determined to get to my yard work and Anna is equally determined to distract and interrupt me as much as she can so I can not get to my yard work. 

Anna and I had to run some errands this morning, which put us behind schedule on getting her down for her nap.....that's never good! If you don't get her down within her usual time she thinks aha!....maybe mom forgot and I don't need a nap today. Why not just let her skip the nap?.....if she doesn't take a nap by about 6:00pm she turns in to a owly little tornado. 

So, by 4:00 I get her in her bed and I quietly skip outside with my monitor in hand, and sun screen and bug spray applied. I think Whoo hoo!...Finally! 

As I get about the third dig in the dirt with my shovel I hear her crying.......BIG SIGH!....and I think I even said OUTLOUD, "oh for Pete sakes!" (I'm sure my neighbors don't even think twice when they hear me talking to myself....I think I do it a lot.....LOL!) 

So, I put down my shovel, take off my gardening gloves and since I'm determined to get back outside once I've calmed her down, I tip toe through the house with my dirt filled yard shoes.....that is always quite a site.....and I just vacuumed the other day, so I was really trying not to get a speck of dirt on my clean floors. 

I get to her room and she is upset because her bed covers aren't just right. (In my mind my eyes are rolling and I'm thinking I took off my gloves and tip-toed through the house for this?!) Brother! So I give her a hug and kiss and remake her bed and she sits up and says, "I think I don't need a nap." (Again to myself I say, think again sister.....you're taking a nap!) Instead I gave her another kiss and said, well you better get your nap done so you can play outside later. 

Well apparently she knows better than I do....she didn't take a nap and I didn't get to go back out to the yard without her. Another Big Sigh......

Maybe tomorrow. :0) 

(The above picture is of one of my flower beds taken a couple years ago. I thought the laughing rock was a good fit for today's post. Sometimes you just have to laugh or you'll scream or cry!)  

 

Lilac Parade

:: Last night we went to the Lilac Parade. As we were waiting for the parade to start I was wondering to myself why we didn't come to the parade last year....then I remembered, it was 95 degrees last year! This year the weather was perfect, 70 degrees :0) 

:: As all of the parade vendors are marching by with their over priced annoying plastic trinkets for sale of course Anna says, "mommy, can I get one?" I was delighted when she picked the orange "spider" ball. It was far less annoying than the big (HUGE) blow up cartoon characters. 
:: This picture doesn't do this float justice....it was one of the showiest of the floats. 
:: This picture cracks me up. "Are you tired Anna?" She says, "no, I'm not tired."

Look at those eyes....they say differently. :0) 

Before we went to the parade last night the conversation at our house was about what time we should head down town to find our spot along the parade route. Parade start time was 7:45, so of course I wanted to go down as early as possible to ensure we had a good spot. Michael's idea of early is 5 minutes before the parade actually starts. oiy!  When you've been married long enough you learn to choose your battles, so I agreed to go down much later than I preferred knowing that we were probably not going to have very good seats. Well, don't tell him I said this, but his get there late theory really panned out! We had great seats and for the first time ever at any free community event we sat next to some great people! Whew! 

The people who had been there hours before us to stake their claim on the curb were nice enough to let Anna sit down in front of them.  

Flashback Friday ALREADY! (where did the week go?)

:: LaConner Tulip Festival Spring 2004
:: Danielle was 11, and Michael 9 (now they are 16 & 14)
:: How times have changed....that camera had FILM in it!
:: This is one of my favorite pictures ever!

Bubbles

My freshly weeded flower beds.....

:: Lower flower bed behind the house. (above)
:: Front flower bed along the driveway. (above)
:: The other front flower bed along the driveway. (above)
:: Along the side of the house. (above)
You might be thinking why is she posting pictures of her flower beds when nothing is in bloom???...well hold on, don't be thinking I've gone and lost my marbles (the few I have left hardy har!) I was thinking it will be fun to see the progression over the summer months. I'll take these same shots once a month and post how things are coming along. (it just occurred to me that people are going to think I have way too much time on my hands if I'm thinking about taking pictures of flower beds.....actually, I don't, I have priorities and my yard is one of them) :0) 

I just noticed this little funny!.....

I was out taking pictures of the yard and noticed our license plate on our car has the letters MOW.....well isn't that just appropriate!? (its probably hard to tell from the picture, because its cut off)

In the spring/summer months it seems like I just finish mowing the lawn and its time again. I like to mow, and would rather Michael doesn't get his hands on the mower. He isn't as picky as I am about the lines......yes, I know.....may seem silly, but I like to have a nice pattern left in the grass from the mower. Nice and crisp! No offense to my dear husband, but its best if he keeps his hands off my mower! (said with love ) tee hee

Mother's Day Flowers

I thought I should post a couple pics of my pretty flowers I received for Mother's Day. Get a load of the size of the Lily.....might be hard to tell in the picture, but it is HUGE!

Mother's Day

:: Notice the little green cross-- I found that a few years ago when I pulled out 4 HUGE shrubs that went across the flower bed (again with the shrubs!)...We are only the second owners of our house, so I knew the cross had something to do with the builders/first owners of our house. I asked one of the neighbors who has been in the neighborhood forever and she said, Oh, that must have been their dog.....eew!.....meaning, its buried in my flower bed! So, up until today I have left the cross so I don't dig up "Spiffy"! 
Boy, does this kid ever know how to make her mom happy or what?! Its the little things that make a mama happy, like seeing your daughter putting her back in to yard work....hee hee

I have had an awesome mother's day.....first Michael and Anna gave me flowers, I was served french toast, BACON, hash browns, and raspberry filled powdered sugar doughnuts!, and then I got to work out in the yard ALL day! As I make this post I'm waiting for my dinner to be cooked on the BBQ. Good times! Oh, and the weather could not have been nicer. Very good times!  

(Tomorrow I'll have pics of all of the flower beds I weeded this weekend. )

Time to Mow

Well, she takes after her mom is all I can say. As we went out the door yesterday morning she looks at the grass, then looks at me and says, "mom, don't you think you should be getting this lawn mowed?" She was quite happy when I suggested we buy her a lawn mower so she could help (shhhh, don't tell her that it doesn't really cut the grass....that would tick her off) hee hee 

Look at the serious look on her face in the top photo....she makes her mother proud.....I like seeing the dedication.....hee hee

The mower is supposed to blow bubbles as you push it, but we have found out that as usual the product in the box doesn't quite live up to the picture on the box. You have to be going approximately 3.2 miles per hour with no wind in order for the thing to actually shoot out bubbles. Kind of disappointing, but she still loves that she can mow the lawn like me. 

Flashback Friday

Happy Friday Everyone! I'm starting something new....Flashback Fridays! 

(I'll be posting pictures from the past.)

Here are a couple of Anna at 5 months old from May 2006....how time flies! What a pudgy little baby!....and that hair!....it had a mind of its own.   

What to do with a Hula Hoop...

What's that? This isn't how your family uses the Hula Hoop? Why not? Makes a great "WHO HORN".....we think it looks like something from Dr. Suess :0) 

(notice I wasn't caught in the act like these two goofballs!)

:: The Hula Hoop is said to be an ancient invention used by the greeks as a form of exercise.

:: In 1958 the Hula Hoop became an american favorite with its production by manufacturer Wham-O.

Twenty million Wham-O Hula Hoops sold for $1.98 in the first 6 months!

:: Japan once banned the Hula Hoop, because the rotating hip action seemed indecent.....I wonder what they would think of our family's use of the Hula Hoop?  hee hee

Now, back to yesterday.....

There was a major accomplishment made in the yard yesterday (besides the big worm find!).....Let me tell you a little about it :0) 

Our house was built in 1970. 

There were a lot of great things that came from the "Super 70's"....me for one :0) 

Disco! 

Saturday Night Live

American Bandstand

However, there were also some not-so-great things as well, like: 

Shag Carpeting

And, the biggest no no in my book was landscaping your yard with shrubs! I'm not talking a couple....I can handle that, I'm talking more than 5...hee hee

Over the past 8 years I have been removing what seems like hundreds of shrubs from our yard. Really I think its more in the neighborhood of 20 that I have removed. There was a lot of sweat, swearing and sore muscles due to those shrubs. 

Well, yesterday I FINALLY removed the LAST Oregon Grape from our yard. 

(shhhh, I think I hear angles singing)

Those suckers require dynamite!...or in my case persistence and a shovel! 

The above picture is what a very overgrown Oregon Grape looks like (picture taken in 2004). I removed that one 4 years ago......it almost killed me! I don't have a picture of the one I was working on yesterday, but I can tell you it too almost killed me! Geesh, those things are there to stay and the root almost goes to China....I'm pretty sure. 

Anyways, I can not even explain how happy I am to have those suckers out of my yard. (shhhhh, wait!....I think its the angels singing again!)

Oh, and here are three things that I think should be against the law:

Shag Carpeting 

Wall Paper

Oregon Grape 

(pass it on!)

If we EVER have a nice day again I will post a couple pictures of the flowers beds where those dreadful Oregon Grape used to reside. By summers end the flower beds will be full of flowers instead of pokey ugly monster shrubs like Oregon Grape! 

Mobius for kids

Today we went to Mobius. It was our first time there and Anna loved it! For those of you who aren't familiar, its a MUCH smaller version of something like Seattle Center. 

Its a great place for a rainy day and kids play. 

Wouldn't it be nice if a worm made you this happy?

:: Digging for worms.
:: The Worm's new home.
:: I think this one is named Wiggles. 
I was out attacking some yard work today and trying to juggle Anna's continuous questions on what she could water or dig up. I was just about to give up on the yard work, because it was obvious she was too bored watching me and she didn't want to play outside unless I stopped everything and played with her......(the trials of being an only child). THEN......as I was making my last shovel into the ground I saw a worm and had a lovely idea......I grabbed the worm and gave it to Anna. Well....you would have thought I just pulled the moon out of the night sky. She was so happy. We found it a little home. And I just need to say thank you to that little worm, because it bought me another two hours out in the yard! 

I was able to find 4 more worms for her and she named them all and played with them for two solid hours. (not to worry....as soon as we went inside I gave her a shower) ;0)

This is what I get for being on the phone....

Okay, I admit that I was probably on the phone a little longer than I should have been today....guilty mom, guilty mom! I was actually still on the phone when Anna comes to find me in the kitchen and says, "I didn't do nothing mom" (Whoo, how's that for good grammar?)....as she has her hands over her eyes. At this point I don't even see her hands covered in what from a distance looks like amateur henna tattoos. Also, my curiosity was peaked at wondering what she meant by "nothing". So I asked her to show me what "nothing" was. She walked me out to the living room and then I caught a glimpse of her hands and arms and realized "nothing" was a pen!  Whew! I can stop imagining all of the things that she might have broken or the spilled paint or whatever else she could have done. 

I probably really confused her when instead of disciplining her for writing all over her hands I got out the camera. hee hee  

May Day at Manito Park

In honor of May Day here are some flowers to pass along....

Anna and I went to Manito Park today to see how many different kinds of flowers we could find. 

Happy May Day!

(The pictures are a little grainy....have to figure that out...hmmm.)