Party Time

Becky Jensen and I are co-hosting a HERITAGE MAKERS party at my house on Thursday the 30th at 7pm. If you haven't seen them before, it is really cool. Come for the products, the food or the friends.

WE WILL HAVE FUN!

Saturday!!!

David went out with a bunch of friends to paintball on Goat Island. It is an island that has abandoned gun batteries and other "fun" war type stuff and is only accessible by boat, and only during certain times because of the tide. The guys all met at Cornet Bay (I think) at 6 am and set off for a day of shooting each other up.

I stayed at home with the kiddos, went to Arami's last soccer game of the season, then set off to a teammates house for a potluck and trophys. It was fun! An added bonus is that the previous evening at about midnight, my dad got into town, so he was able to join us for the festivities.

I didn't do much work, but was sure feeling tired, so at about 4, Amira and I took a nap.

At 6, the phone rang, waking me up. It was David...

me: Hi
Dave: Hi...(long pause)...we are on our way back from Cornet Bay.
me: Cool
Dave: We had a bunch of fun.
me: Cool
Dave: Can you do me a favor?
me: What is it?
Dave: Take me to the Emergency Room when I get Home.
me: (big sigh)...what did you do?
Dave: I jumped off a gun battery and I need some x-rays of my back I think. It hurts to breath.
me: (bigger sigh) All right, see you soon.

Fast forward 7 1/2 hours, most of which was in the ER, part of the time sharing a room with a meth addict, and part of the time with him getting x-rays and cat scans (where he passed out and needed to be carried by a woman to a bed) we discover that he has indeed BROKEN HIS BACK!

Yep, that is right, Dave broke his back playing paintball. It really isn't that bad. It is a compression fracture of the 7th thorasic vertabrae. He is in pain, but not enough (he feels) to use the narcotic pain meds, and can walk around and do most things fairly normally. He is pretty stiff looking, but then again, David always is:)

Anyways, he is going to make an appointment to see an orthapedic surgean tomorrow, just to make sure there isn't anything he should do aside from taking a couple of days off of work.

So, to finish off the day(I guess technically is was Sunday at this point) we picked up our kids from some AWESOME friends (the Lay's, I know you aren't surprised, you think they are awesome too) and went home to sleep!

My First Garden

I am so very excited. This weekend, I planted my very first garden, well, actually there are two of them. I have some incredibly generous friends who live on a lot of land. They have a full field full of potatoes and corn, additionally, 4-6' x 80' raised beds, and 6 (I think, maybe 5) 4' x 4' raised beds. We spent a good part of Saturday over there planting vegetables, a lot of which we intend to can for our food storage. We planted....tomotoes, zuchini, squash, eggplant, cucumbers, watermelon, peppers, onions, pumpkins, cabbage, cauliflour, broccoli, beets, spinach, artichokes, ummmm I can't think of what else, but there is probably more.

THEN...we finally got our box put together and filled, and planted our home garden in the back yard with...tomatoes, red, green, yellow and jalepeno peppers, walla walla onions, cilantro, zuchinni, yellow squash, green beans, peas and a gourmet salad mix. David is fashioning a mini green house to go over the tomatoes and peppers so they will grow lots of stuff.

It is so cool, I cannot express my excitement, but please know, that I am excited!

New Stuff

Before Amira was born, we decided to cloth diaper her. For the first year of her life, we used Prefolds, which are the large rectangle cloths that our mothers used to used. I felt good everytime I used them...putting them on her, taking them off, washing them, haning them on the line outside, folding them afterwards...I know, it sounds a little cooky, but I really did enjoy all aspects. Then she turned one, and really started to eat real food (not that breast milk isn't real food, you know what I mean) and I lost all interest.

Fast forward six months, and the desire to do it again has been overwhelming, but not enough to want to pull down the rectangles, and covers. So, I started some research via the internet and friends who use! I discovered pocket diapers (well, actually somebody else did, and I just copied their advise) and took the plunge and made the order. One of the requirements was to get a special diaper sprayer though, so that no "toilet dunking" would be in order. THEY CAME IN THE MAIL TODAY and I am so excited.

Amira is wearing the cute pink one (post washing of course). She likes the velcro, I can see that being a potential problem, but for now, let's hope she doesn't figure out the snaps on her onesies for awhile.

I actually installed the diaper sprayer myself, it was pretty simple. After I was done, I invited Dave in to check it out. He was thouroughly impressed with the amount of money some people are making off of us hippie moms buying fancy sink sprayers. I digress...I said to him, "let me show you how to use it." To which he responded "I don't need any help, I know how it works." as he pushed the sprayer and shot his face and the ceiling.

THE END

David Has a Change of Heart

Alright.... David Here

My employer has in the past couple of years purchased several Toyota Prius's ( or would they be calles Pri'ie). Now I don't really know why..... Perhaps it was the precevied cost savings, availabily, or public perception that led them to buy these cars, I don't know.

Now my impression of the Prius is not a positive one. I can see the noble valor and personal convictions that would cause a person to purchase/drive one (although I don't neccesarlily believe in things like Man Made Global Warming and the like). But come on.... Only 2nd to the Pontiac Aztek......... is the Uglyest Car on the Road.

I have sadly lost my Prius virginity. My first experience was last summer when I was a passenger tooling around town with a co-worker. However I kind of look at that as since I wasn't driving then it was OK and I could still hold my head up high. However 2 weeks ago I found myself needing to make a site visit on official business and the Prius was the ONLY car available (Hmmm.... all the gas guzzers were checked out...... there might be more to that story) So anyway I was forced by lack of options to drive the Prius.

1st Impression..... Its Ugly. Seats are comfortable enough. Steering wheel feels good. Visibilty Stinks. I couldn't figure out how to start it. Controls are funky, to futuristic, and not very logical. Not to mention its Ugly....

I have come to a point in my existince and since I have now had my initiation to the Prius club.... I have decided to embrace the technology and the ugly car. I will not shy away from it. It will be my first choice if I need to use a vehicle at work. I will drive it as much as possible. I will put it to the test...... I wanna see how often I can make the engine run vs running on batteries. I wanna see how Low I can get the Average Miles Per Gallon.

After all its been a brutal winter for me... Cold, Rainy, Snowy, and just seemed like it would never end. And since its starting to finally get warm and bearable outside I need to make sure that global warming hangs around a while.

Do you ever...

Get a compliment from a friend at church on mother's day about how cute you look, and then try to be funny and clever and say something really dumb and insulting? I DO!!!!

Sorry Aspen, I really was just trying to be funny, but it didn't come out that way.

MAIRA

Maira went on her BIG girl scout outing this weekend and spent the night at the Pacific Science Center. Her troop leader's daughter is also in the troop. She recently had major knee surgery, so is a little hobbly. I just opened my email and this is what I received from her leader.

" Can I tell you what an absolute delight your daughter is. I just love her. She was so sweet and caring and decided she wanted to be Elisabeth's buddy for the camp-in adventure. She was so thoughtful and always jumping in to help her on her crutches, go to the bathroom, get her snacks, help her get out of her chair and up off the ground, carry things, etc. She didn't even think twice about it. It's rare to see such truly unselfish acts of sincere caring. Give her another big hug from me."

What a treat to hear on mother' day.