I Miss Liquid Manure

Right-o. I never in a million years thought I'd say that, but I do miss liquid manure.

Now, to truly understand what I'm talking about, you have to be from a dairy town or a farm town. You have to remember driving down the two lane road and seeing liquid brownish green gunk being sprayed on the fields. You have to have smelled that smell so much, it became synonymous with 'home'.

Then you have to drive down that same road, through those same fields, and smell whatever the heck they are putting on those fields now. It's not good, old fashioned manure. It smells like a cross between dead, rotting carcasses and rank diarrhea.

It's permeates the car, it gets in the back of your throat and you can taste how awful it is....

So, you betcha. I miss liquid manure. I'm thinking of starting a petition to bring back that heavenly scent! Who's with me?

I Am A Mother Of Teenagers

Holy Toledo!

How did my kids get to be teenagers while I am still so young?

Today we heard a preview for a movie we'd given thought to seeing, but it's rated pg-13 and I started to tease the kids by saying too bad you are not old enough.....

My husband softly said both kids are teenagers now.

I literally looked like this:

And screamed accordingly.

I'm just saying it was shocking.

I Will Never Yell Bingo

But that's okay!

If I was playing Bingo (big if since I do not like to play games) and I got a Bingo, I would just ignore it.

And instead of feeling embarrassed about that quirk, because it's not a supposed situation....I have played Bingo as a kid and never won even when I could have, I have decided to embrace it. So what if I don't yell Bingo?

I am 36 years old today and will no longer be shackled by my lack of desire to yell Bingo!

I'm too busy yelling other things.....

Be Careful!

Dinner time!

Have a good day!

What were you thinking?

Crap to heck!

Emma! Sarah! Olive!

Stop Barking!

There's a Moth!!

I may be Bingo-less by choice, but I like to think my life is one big win!

BINGO!!!

I Never Feel More Like Suzy Homemaker Than When....

I have filled the freezer with provisions.

After spending an hour pouring over recipes and making a two week menu plan, then going through the cupboards and making my grocery list, I shop the commissary for bargains and deals. Granted, being the commissary, it already has bargains and deals, but like every store, it will clearance or mark down items.

What I really want is chicken on sale. I know. I hate raw chicken. But if I can get lucky and find it on a clearance sale, I will buy it up.

Yesterday was my lucky day.

Or unlucky because I really do hate dealing with raw chicken.

As I stood in front of the chicken, looking at packages and prices, I discovered boneless skinless chicken breasts on half price sale. Yippee! I grabbed those packages. On an even better sale were packages of chicken tenderloins. Usually I avoid these because of that weird tendon thingy that turns my stomach, but for $1 a pound, how could I walk away?

I couldn't. I bought lots. I came home, put it in the fridge and cooked dinner. Then I wanted to sit down and read book number 76 of the year, but I couldn't. That raw chicken was calling to me. I chopped it up (pulling that horrible white thing out of every single piece) and cooked it. Now I have the freezer stocked full of cooked chicken, ready to toss into a stir-fry or roll into a chimichanga at a moments notice.

I feel like a domestic queen! A slightly nauseated one, since all that raw chicken was really not nice, but still, a queen!

The Joys Of A Camping Life

I always wanted to love camping. The idea of sleeping outside, cooking over a fire, smelling woodsmoke and burned hot dogs and the scent of the wild outdoors all pleased me.

The actual doing, not so much.

Turns out, I am a puss-puss baby. I like my comforts. I like a soft bed and two pillows and a place to sit that is bird poop free....

When my husband and I bought our tent trailer, I was thrilled. A real bed! With room for pillows and blankets and a mini fridge and lights and it was a dream come true.

The first year we had it, I counted the times we used it to make sure we were using it well. I didn't want it to be a frivolous purchase. After we took it to Alaska and back, I knew we were hooked. Camping in a new place every night takes on a whole new wonderful meaning when you aren't setting up a tent and blowing up air mattresses...when you just pop up your trailer and all of your things are stored ready and waiting.

We have turned into a road travelling family. We love the camping life! A new place every night, a new adventure around the corner.....and it's not just about what we see. Our CD player broke during this trip, and instead of the kids just plugging into their ipods, we all talked; we joked; we laughed until we couldn't breath (that might have just been me and it scared the kids but they shouldn't be so funny!); our son became our very own book on tape and read a couple Sherlock Holmes to us....

Smores and campfires and giant moths and bats swooping over our heads and pit toilets that suck toilet paper in and magnificent views and hidden covered bridges and driftwood shaped like a fork are all part of the joys, but by far, the most joy filled part is just spending time with the family.

Seventeen Years Ago Today....

Seventeen years ago today I did something that changed my life forever, for the good and for the better.

I said, "I Do."

When you find the right person for you, it's the right person for you whether you are 16 or 36 and all the years between and all the years to come....I'm glad we were smart enough to know that way back then and not waste a moment of this wonderful life we've been given.

Husband of mine, I love you.

A Windshield View

Every family road trip will find me peering out the windshield, camera at hand, waiting for the perfect windshield view to take a picture. I'm looking for a picture that will stand alone in our scrapbook of the trip, one that will define what we saw and did.....

We started our trip off with lots and lots of typical Seattle/Tacoma traffic....

We crossed over into Oregon on our favorite huge bridge into Astoria....

A side road off Hwy 101 that called to us, saying ocean views this way & delivered as promised...

Breathtaking views of the Oregon Coast, that made us fall in love with the ocean all over again...

A view of my sister and brother in law's finally working trailer lights.....

The Avenue of the Giants....Redwoods so tall it's impossible for words to describe.....

Possibly the only straight stretch of Hwy 1......

Or our first view of the Golden Gate Bridge, complete with fog.....

I have too many choices this time! Too many different aspects of our trip! And I can honestly say, having too many memories I want to hold onto is definitely not a bad thing....

It is a sign of a trip well traveled.