sand in the city 2009

well, one of my summer of fun ideas was to go to the sand in the city event at pioneer courthouse square, and i went! becky had never been to the event so i dragged her along too :) we started off at the square, then headed over to the mall for lunch and window shopping. FYI there is a moonstruck chocolates kiosk at poineer square mall. consider yourself forewarned :)

bart simpson...cowabunga dude :)

this was a cute display. you may not notice the big sasquatch footprint in the sand where 'he' and the smart car are placed. this display was done by an energy conservation group, i think.

the two pics above were of my favorite display. it is called 'family game night' and was all different boardgames families can play. the pic directly above is of hungry hungry hippo :) i loved that game when i was little!! then notice the life car in the top picture too. :)

me and my boyfriend

yeah, becky tried to creep in, but ended up keeping her distance. good idea, girlie :)

a post of blogs

some of my friends have been asking me lately what blogs i stalk on a regular basis. these questions usually come around because i am quoting yet ANOTHER blog post i read, or raving about a new blog i found in the blogosphere. i am a bit nerdy now about finding interesting blogs and after a while these complete strangers start to become your 'friends'.
i wanted to dedicate a post to introducing my friends to some of the blogs i follow so they too can be nerdy blog stalkers :)

introducing:
lindsay,the passionate homemaker
the mennonite ladies
toni,the happy housewife
kimi,the nourishing gourmet
kristen, the harried homemaker
carrie, at it's frugal being green
laura, the organizing junkie
rachel, at the high chair

at passionate homemaking you will find frugal, delicious meals that are healthy and natural. lindsay has great ideas for organizing, simplifying and maintaining your home; child care; gardening and natural, frugal living. she is a great christian woman whom i have had the pleasure of meeting recently (!) and provides really great insight on the high calling of womanhood.

i have just found mennonitegirlscancook! i love it! the recipes are mouthwatering and very down home. they remind me a lot of church potlucks :) and the kind of food i l-o-v-e to eat. i also really appreciate the occasional devotional post, as they are so encouraging!

toni is the happy housewife. please, before you start in on her posts, read her story! the Lord has transformed her heart, her marriage and subsequently her life and it makes her posts so much more meaningful, i think, knowing that she is so sincere in her striving to serve her family. she has great parenting tips, money management ideas, and as a long-time military wife lots of insight into base living. i really like her recipe posts also!

the nourishing gourmet is a site i found a couple of weeks ago while trolling for blogs that supported nourishing traditions methods. kimi has a great repertoire of healthful recipes and kitchen tips. i don't know about you, but i am ALWAYS looking for a new recipe to try :) she is also a strong christian and approaches her food and family care from a Biblical perspective.

the frugal antics of a harried homemaker is a great site. kristen gives advise and ideas that fall totally in line with the title of her site. dinners are quick and cheap, money and time saving tips, and need i say it again...recipes :)

since i also like to visit sites that aren't food-based..haha..i follow the goings on of carrie at it's frugal being green. many frugal ideas are also green ones, because making your laundry detergent is cheap and earthfriendly for example. if you are new to the green scene i really suggest heading over to the blog site to get acquainted with natural, earthfriendly living.

laura is THE organizing junkie! she has great tips on organizing your house room by room, learning to purge, and doing 'life' organization too. her posts are very motivating, and if you read my post on the urge to purge, you will know where i got my inspiration! :)

last but not least is my friend rachel who maintains the high chair. i akin stalking rachels blog to being a fly on the walls of her house :) she's a gifted and funny writer who's stories will make you laugh hysterically :) rachel posts recipes, home organization tips, gardening ideas and parenting tips like cloth diapering. it helps that i know rachel personally and have met her husband and children, but i think you will connect with her posts as well!

so there you have it, my top blogs!! i hope you will check these ladies out and start stalking too :) if you have any sites you visit regularly, please leave a comment and let us know. i'm always up for more reading material!! :)

packrat reformed::urge to purge

i have been reading a lot lately on several blogs about simplifying the household in order to make it easier to live in/with and clean. simple is my friend. i love to have things organized, and in the last several years really worked on being able to determine 'must haves' from 'junk' in my personal belongings.

you must understand something about me though if you are really going to appreciate this facet of my life. i was raised a complete and total pack rat. both of my parents are pack rats. their parents are/were pack rats. it is a genetic trait, i think!! but see, men and women keep things for different reasons. my dad keeps things because 'i may be able to use that for something later' or 'i can turn that into something else and it will be great'. my mom keeps things because ' so and so made that 40 years ago' or 'i like it' (even though she may have forgotten she even had it). this is how i was, possessing BOTH of my parents traits until a few years ago. i started cutting the sentamental ties with things i never used/wanted, and realized that if i needed something in the future, i could just go to the store and buy the thing instead of hanging on to this piece of junk for 23 years.

all that to say, i have a deep appreciation for organization now and have reaped the benefits of de-cluttering my own household while i had one. now that i am living with my parents again, their clutter was getting on my nerves. i knew it was on their nerves too, but neither one of them was going to tackle it.

i did.

starting at about 9:30 friday night and continuing to about 11 this morning (nope, i didn't sleep!! i couldn't risk loosing my mojo) i cleaned out the cupboards in the kitchen and the linen closet in the hallway. unfortunately i wasn't thinking ahead and didn't take 'before' shots of the kitchen, but i did get afters, and b & a's of the hall closet.

three boxes of junk to take to goodwill. glasses, a toaster oven, baby bottles, sippy cups, mugs, bowls and lots of duplicate items (how many pie pans does one kitchen need? certainly not 5!)

there were also two garbage bags!!

then i cleared out the junk drawer. every house has one!

i cleaned up the cook books and loose recipes we had in the cupboard. also, i went through all of the medication in the medicine cabinet and threw out all the expired stuff. i HIGHLY recommend doing this! you would not believe how much expired medicine i threw away, and that stuff can be very dangerous! i organized our meds by person, and then the 'general' stuff went on the lazy susan.

i tackled the freezer too! anything that was unidentifyable because of lack of ID or freezer burn was tossed.

here's the newly organized small appliance cupboard...all of the casserole dishes were organized as well, so that everything can be found easily

this starts the 'before' pics of the hall linen closet. so much clutter!! so many towels that are not needed anymore, enough lightbulbs to light the eifel tower till Jesus comes again, candles, vhs tapes, medical supplies and junk.

and the after!!!! three boxes went to goodwill, and two garbage bags for the dump.

now, everything is nicely folded and stacked. smaller, like items were grouped together and placed in new storage bins. i also bought a labeler (a dream of mine for decades :) and identified the contents of the bins so that they will be easy to locate and keep organized. there is actually an entire shelf now that is empty, and the floor space!! we are looking forward to using that extra space for the big costco shopping of toilet paper, paper towels, kleenex, etc.

it is so nice to be able to look around the kitchen and not see any clutter! and it's pretty tempting to open the linen closet every time i walk by just to admire it. mom and dad are very pleased with the outcome and are hoping this will help make their next move easier too!

summer of fun schedule

the last few summers i have tried to mark down on my calendar what events are taking place in pdx and vanc during the summer months. i check out the city of vancouver website to see what is going on downtown (mainly at the fort and esther short park), clark county fairgrounds website, and the city of portland parks and recreation. the portland website lists all of the parks and major public areas so you can search by area to see what is taking place. i really like the events at pioneer courthouse square and the japanese and chinese gardens. another place to look is the website for the oregon convention center and portland expo center. the types of events held at these two venues are going to be more 'conventiony' than entertainment based, but are still worth looking into.

below are some of the events that i have on my calendar...i may make it to all of them, or none of them but the goal is to at least have no excuse for not having fun :)

JULY
Friday 10th-Flicks on the Bricks (FOTB), Pioneer Courthouse Square (PCS), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Take a blanket, low folding chair or bean bag and watch movies presented on a screen at the Square. Cost:It's free!
Friday 17th-Saturday 18th-Yoshida's Sand in the City, PCS This is a really fun event where they fill up the Square with sand and have sand-sculpture building contests. There are a lot of really interesting sculptures, and its so neat to see the teams working together. Cost: Free
Saturday 18th-1860's Baseball at the Ft. Vancouver Historical Reserve Parade Grounds. I haven't been able to make it to this event in the past couple of years, but I hear it's really neat to watch. The game is played just like it was in 1860 (apparently the rules and regulations were different then). Cost:Free!
Sunday 19th-Southwest Washington Humane Society Open House. The new east county facility is finished! Take a tour, learn about microchipping and spaying/neutering your pets, and get information on the services that the HS offers. Cost: Free
Friday 24th-FOTB at PCS, Dirty Dancing. This is probably gonna be a really fun one to be at! Tell me you don't think there will be sing along!!! :) Cost: Free
Friday 24th-25th-Camas Days in Downtown Camas, Wa. Lots of events for the whole family! Enjoy shopping in the cute boutiques, good food and music and other vendors. Cost: Free (except of course if you buy something)
Friday 31st-Tillamook Celebration at PCS. Tillamook will be sampling cheese and ice cream in celebration of their anniversary. Cost: Free. FREE CHEESE PEOPLE :)

AUGUST
Friday 7th-FOTB at PCS Jurassic Park. A good one to take the older kids to! I remember seeing this movie in the theater as an early teen (that dates me!) and it's just not the same on a TV screen. Might be your only chance to see it again in big projection! Cost: Free
Saturday 15th-Another installment of 1860's Baseball. Same details as above.
Sunday 16th-India Festival at PCS. Go experience Indian music, food and vendors at PCS. This would be a great learning opportunity for kids, and a perfect chance to teach them about different cultures and (if age appropriate) the persecuted church and human rights.Cost: Free
Friday 21st-FOTB at PCS Anchorman! Not one for the kids, but a fun one to take some of your friends to. Cost: Free
Friday 28th-Italian Festival at PCS. Need I say more than Italian food?? Nope. Cost: Free

there are a lot of other activities out there...please let me know if you know of anything interesting that i missed, or if you know of other sites to look at for local entertainment!!

belated fathers day gift/surprise bathroom remodel for daddy

when my dad told my mom and me a few weeks back that he was going to florida for a work trip, we immediately began scheming to remodel the front bathroom while he was gone. the bathroom has been needing an update for several years. things just weren't coming clean anymore and no matter how hard we tried, it just never looked good. the toilet and sink were so hard water stained that they constantly looked dirty and grimy. it was kind of embarrassing to have people over...we hoped they had used the bathroom before coming over! :)
also, there has been water damage under the floor for many years. dad and i did some updating in '96 in the bathroom and the wax ring we put down at that time didn't seal properly. water had been seeping into the floor for several years before we found out what the problem was. we replaced it a few years ago so it stopped leaking but of course that was too late for the floor.
check out our pics from the whirlwind surprise project!

old pain job (circa 1996) w/ medicine cabinet and old vanity light

no matter how we scrubbed or what cleaners we used it NEVER came clean

the floor was separating from the bathtub since it was old and water damaged

yeah, it's a tiny bathroom!

we put those shower doors up in '96 and i liked them for all of one day. i HATE shower doors now because they are so hard to keep clean! they are also inconvenient if you have children or pets to bathe because you have to lean over the tracks and that's really uncomfortable! :(

thursday night after the water damaged sub-floor was ripped up, this is what we found of the floor boards

oh we were not excited to find rot in the floor boards! our friend steve was helping during this whole process, so he cut the board out and replaced it with a nice pressure treated piece. that's the toilet drain on the right, also messed up because of the water damaged floor.

cabinet doors drying in the sun

new sub floor is laid and the vanity is painted. after my mom did such a great job of painting that front panel...i leaned into it and ruined it!! good goin', me!

here i am with the trowel getting ready to put down leveling compound on the new subfloor. for the hour prior to this i had been under the sink trying to disconnect the water lines from the sink. the hot water bolt came off with a little work, but the right one never did come off for me. i wrenched on that bolt so hard that i really hurt my shoulder and joked about getting a hernia! i am actually going to urgent care tomorrow to see if it my shoulder torn or sprained!!

saturday night after we had set the new sink and i laid the floor tile, steve sat the toilet. i had done this with my dad before but still didn't feel comfortable doing it myself. i'm glad steve has such a servant's heart and was so patient to help!!!!

sunday afternoon finished product!! today i laid the cove moulding at the floor/wall joint, hung the mirror, grouted the tile backsplash around the counter and some other little things. mom hung the shower curtain and the pic above the toilet. looks pretty!

close up of the vinyl floor tile

we didn't have time to put the doors back on the vanity before dad came home, so i just set them up against it. yes, we still haven't repainted the front panel of the vanity i ruined :) please notice the tile backsplash...i have never done tile before, and i did this all by myself!! i'm pretty proud if you can't tell :)

dad was really surprised to see what we had done. he's not one to really be excited about things so we still don't really know how he feels about it all. : ) he works so hard on his business and because of that doesn't have the time or energy to tackle projects like this, so we hope he does like it and understands we did it because we appreciate him not because we thought he'd never do it.

happy belated father's day, daddy! i hope you like it and know how much love we put into this project...because WE LOVE YOU! you're the best dad i ever had! :)

on my mind

i always have a lot on my mind. usually i can't focus on the task at hand until i have written out my thoughts or developed my plan of action. a sampling of my brain today:

-i don't think i'm getting enough sleep
-i really need to clean the kitchen
-can't wait till this weekend to remodel the bathroom
-hope everything goes well with the bathroom and we get everything done
-i really want starbucks but am trying not to spend money on it
-my schedule is filling up with doctors appointments
-how much is all the medical testing going to cost
-should i take doula training sooner or later
-the thought of birth makes me nervous
-if the thought of birth makes me nervous should i really be pursuing this field of work
-why do people claim that their divorce is for the good of their children
-why does everything at wendy's have meat on it...even the side caesar salad
-i am thankful for parents who were big enough to face their problems and not divorce
-i envy my girlfriends that are stay at home moms
-how can parents be so selfish as to not consider their children's well-being in every decision
-how are there sickos in the world who would prey on my friends children
-if i had a house with acreage i would have goats, alpacas, chickens and a no-kill dog rescue

i am so thankful to have a God who knows all my thoughts, worries, heartaches and joys. there is nothing that enters my mind or heart that He cannot see, cannot heal, cannot calm or cannot bless.

"why are you downcast, oh my soul? why are you so disturbed within me? put your hope in God, for i will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God" psalm 42:5

fun times

last saturday we went to the portland international rose test garden in portland, oregon. the occassion (though you definitely don't need an occassion to go!) was my mom's birthday and she had never been up to the garden. mom, dad and i met up with seth and breanne and made our way through the seemingly endless rows of roses. some were so bright, almost neon, while others were so pale you could hardly tell what color they were supposed to be! it was a great day for being outside too. as you may know, our weather around here is a little 'ify' at best this time of year so you never really know what you're going to get. on our day it was warm, overcast (great for pictures) and not a drop of rain!

as we walked around the flowers we found fun places to have our pictures taken, then settled in one of the courtyard for some family photos. i set up my tripod and snapped away. i love photography so it was fun to have some captive subjects :)

after we were done at the garden we drove down to pf changs in the heart of the pearl district. we had quite the wait (because someone, who shall remain nameless...ok, me, didn't make reservations) but it was worth it. my mom highly recommends the shrimp in lobster sauce and the dynamite shrimp! ;)

here are some pics from our day:

seth and me

can you feel the love?

awww...

mom and dad

seth and breanne

the whole family