Home We Are

We left T. Falls last night and came home.  This morning I actually got up and ran.  It has been awhile, actually since the kids got out of school.  I can't take it though; I feel so much better if I make the effort to be consistent.  I will get up early to run from now on.  Yes.  I will.

After running, I did my stint as Derrick's Office Assistant (D.O.A), and that took a good portion of the rest of my day.  I am still having a hard time really digging into my work there.  My two week yonder to T. Falls did not exactly render me accessible to my office work.  I will work in the office more consistently and productively from now on.  Yes.  I will.

I did eventually manage to escape outside to work in my garden.  My strawberries are giNORmous this year.  Big, red, juicy bites of goodness they are.  Relocated my dahlias and lupin... and watered lots. The first part of July has to be one of the most beautiful weeks of the year.  The flowers and plants are at their most lush at this exact moment.

Derrick did such a good job of taking care of my garden and my fish, Kloe's lizards and he even fed Derrin's snake.  Everything was well watered, fed and happy when I got home:)

I made Kung Pow Chicken tonight.  I cut up the chicken with one of the knives Derrick bought about a month ago.  His knives are sharp.  Really sharp.  I know me;  I WILL be visiting the ER with one of my fingers in an ice-filled baggy within the next couple of months. Derrick has researched proper cutting techniques.  He was giving the "hold your hand like a claw" advice tonight.  Meh.  Awkward.  Better just count on the trip to the ER.

He made homemade ice-cream.  He is the favorite among the kids at the moment.  He is my favorite at the moment too.

One Fine Day of Parachutes and Pickles, and some other Stuff

Okay.  So, since I am having a hard time getting started here, I will commence making a list of what my day consisted of:

1.  Woke up.  It was pouring outside.  Derrin had made a good strong fortifying brew of coffee for me (bless you, my son), and after my first cup I drove both kids to school so they could avoid the wet walk to the bus.

2.  Had a second cup of coffee.

3.  Started a third.

4. Off to school to go on a field trip with The Derrin and his class. Experienced a bus ride with lots of loud and kinda smelly 10 year olds (Derrin being the exception of that description, of course). Our destination: The Smoke Jumper Visitor Center, where we learned about all things pertaining to Smoke Jumpers.

Thing that stands out in my mind: To be a Smoke Jumper, you must be sized from 5'3" 120 lbs. to 6'6" 200 lbs. I am baffled how a little 120 pounder would be able to jump out of a plane into trees, cut herself out of the parachute to get out of the trees (because it seemed like that was a pretty common occurrence?), climb out of tree to get off backpack and other carry-ables (all weighing in at 120 lbs. themselves!) and then climb back up the tree to retrieve the stuck parachute, then climb back down the tree and haul her massive pack to make camp and then go cut down trees and chop fire lines. It would take a stronger woman than myself to do all that, or want to do all that. I want to meet a little woman that has done all of that someday. Anyways, Derrin took a lot of pictures (I'll post some) and it was good to hang out with him.

A picture of a picture.  No blue skies today.

Smoke Jumpers have to sew their own fire resistant jumping clothes.

Ropes to hang/dry parachutes

5.  Grabbed lunch for Derrick and myself, came home, balanced Quickbooks (I am practically an EXPERT at this point.  It may be time to start hiring myself out to help other companies with THEIR Quickbook questions.  Heh.), worked on Derrick's website issues, worked on marketing, just plain worked.

6.  Dropped a giant, and very full jar of pickles.  Spent the next half hour cleaning pickles and pickle juice off the kitchen floor.  Tried to see the bright side:  Vinegar is a good cleaner, even if it DOES smell like garlic.  My house may smell like pickles for awhile.  I may smell like pickles for awhile.

7.  Went to the library.  Finally invested the dollar to replace my library card AND paid the fine I have owed for two years.  Such a clean slate.  Kids both got tons of books.

8.  Dinner.  Derrick made his beautiful Salmon, rice and corn. 

9.  And then our Family Study.  Nice lesson on praying for strength, and also about our motivations.

10.  Took a picture of these flowers, because they were beautiful and the sun was finally out, shining through their petals:



11.  Put the kids to bed.

12.  Gave Kloes's lizard Lizzy another warm bath and put vege oil on her.  I'm worried about her:(  She hasn't eaten in quite awhile.  All the message boards I've gone to say warm baths and oil.  Hoping she feels better soon.

13.  Actually, this is what I didn't do today, or any other day for the last week:  Run.  Between the rain and the millions of things I've been doing, when in the world am I supposed to run.  *sigh*  Had a feeling that THAT would be the thing to slip through the cracks.  Darn it.

14.  Watched flooding happen all around us.  I think that we are going to be okay where we are- it would have to come up quite a bit to get us.  I hope.

15.  Wrote this blog.

And I will call that The End.  Of this day.

Balancing

I reconciled quickbooks all by my little ol' self today!!  No help!  And it BALANCED!!!! 

There were moments of insecurity, of course.  Moments of questioning my intelligence. 

Moments of cursing my youthful disregard of all things accounting when I was younger and in school.

I doubted.  I even got a little choked up once.



 But ultimately, I prevailed!! 

And now I am done with that.  For the day.



I have a talk tonight at meeting.  I will feel much better tonight when it is done.  But still glad to have had one.

This weekend we are going camping. We parked our camper earlier this week to ensure an awesome camping location on Memorial Day Weekend.  We parked it on TUESDAY.  I just know there are people heading up there today thinking they are being all vigilant, only to curse the campers that got there on Tuesday. 

It's right by the water.  It is major flooding season out there right now.  I called that I get two points if our camper gets washed away by flood water before we even get there.  If it doesn't get washed away, I have to make cookies for everyone I was giving a hard time about the campsite choice (mainly Steve). 

Seems fair to me.

We are bringing the motorcycles, so that'll be fun.  There are also supposed to be pike in the water up there.  But, in case it rains (which it's looking like it will), there are lots of games and I will be bringing my kindle.

Anyways, I doubt I will be on here blogging for the next couple days, as I will be off the grid.  Hope y'all have a good weekend:)