Beach Retreat

This was my heavenly view for my afternoon of reading in Manzanita, OR on Friday. It was a beautiful sunny day sandwiched between two rainy days. But I loved every minute of my retreat.

My first night was spent with Savannah. We arrived late, settled in, made brownies and relaxed in the hot tub. We slept in late and spent the morning in town before she headed home. This left me with 24 hours of complete solitude and no car! I walked the beach, got a massage, had tea in town and did so much reading I had to go back into town the next morning and find a new book because I finished the one I brought. Friday afternoon Mario showed up and we went on a bike ride, visited the farmers market and had dinner in town. The next  morning we made breakfast with our amazing peppered bacon and potatoes bought at the farmer's market, (as well as our own home grown eggs). We made a stop in Seaside, then stopped in Astoria to visit some of my favorite clients/now friends. I brought their kids jaw breakers, which they promptly made into a white, chalky candy mess all over me! In spite of the rain it was a lovely day.

It was just the medicine I needed after a few stressful weeks and the last 6 months on call! I've got one more week off call. We are heading to a family wedding in Utah this weekend and I'm going to try real hard to squeeze in a trip to my favorite Korean spa next week. I also have a reservation for a kayak trip around Willamette Falls on Monday night. I hope the weather holds out until then!

Tula Bakery

There's a new gluten free bakery in town!

Tula Gluten Free Bakery and Cafe

They don't have a website that I can find, but you can find them on facebook 

 This spinach mushroom ricotta tart was delicious. 

The crust had a good texture and taste and the filling was flavorful!

 I can not say no to a chocolate cookie. This one was soft with chocolate chips and nuts with a hint of salt. I LOVE salty and sweet together. Very good!

They also offer pizza, pannini, salad, savory tarts and many choices of sweets. I will definitely be making another visit soon. Since my daughter is newly gluten free, and Tula is very near her house, I think I'll take her on a date soon.

Outdoor Movie Night

We had such a fun activity at our home last week. A few families from church came over for a family friendly movie. Everyone brought movie treats, the kids came in their pj's, and we had a nice mix of people. The weather was perfect and with it getting dark earlier now we were able to get started early enough for the kids to get to bed on time!

Mario borrowed the projector and screen from school and we put chairs and blankets on the lawn to enjoy the movie. The kids were great and seemed to enjoy the movie. My sister and her kids, who had just moved into the neighborhood 5 days before, joined us. As well as our neighbors who moved in over a year ago that we had not met yet.

We watched "Johnny Lingo", which is a movie I've seen at least 10 times, as this was a favorite of my Sunday school boys I taught many years ago. It's a short movie (about 20 minutes), with a great lesson about self worth.

Emilia Addison

Ready to see Taylor Swift.

Showing off her bling jeans.

First day of school, Sophomore year.

She has a job.

She bought her own school clothes 

(including....gasp....a pair of jeans that cost almost $100)

She drives. And she does it pretty good.

She will be getting her license in about 2 months.

She wants to drive in cars with friends. 

But she still watches some Disney shows.

And gives me hugs goodbye.

My baby is growing up so fast.

I love spending time with her and watching her discover who she is.

She is a young woman that I am proud to call my daughter.

Feeling Sorry for Myself

Because I've been on call 

ALL SUMMER!!!!!

If you have never had a job where you were on call (most of the time) then you have no idea what a bummer this is. I did steal away for one week to the beach with my family (though technically I was still on call, the likely hood of my client going into labor was slim). But other than that week I've spent my entire summer on call. 

In the early part of summer my last client was due early August, but then I took a new client on late July for a mid to late August birth. I felt pretty certain that I would still have the last couple of weeks of summer off, and I especially thought I would enjoy Labor Day weekend doing something fun, and I certainly thought that one week into September I'd be free to step away from my cell phone. Ugh!!!

But here I am, feeling sorry for myself and very envious of those who don't live an on call life. Next summer I'm going off call!

Bonsai Class at Grandpa's

My dad got interested in Bonsai plants a few years ago and not only has he collected many, he has begun to make his own interesting and beautiful planters of bonsai. He called last week and said he wanted to hold a "class" to teach us how to do it. It was so much fun to get creative with Mario and the girls and come up with our own beautiful planter.

Savannah making the river of rocks

Everyone getting in on the planting and creating.

I sat in a wet spot and everyone loved making fun of my wet bum.

Adding more personal touches.

The finished products.

The one my family did is on the bottom left. 

I love it and now need to find a special place in my yard where the dogs won't ruin it!

Garden Goodies

The garden was put in very late this year. I didn't want a repeat of last year, which was I put the garden in very early and then we had weeks and weeks (months?) of rain and I lost just about everything. Plus having the chickens free ranging the yard didn't help because whatever was growing they were eating!

So the garden went in much later than I had planned. I bought almost all of my starts at Grocery Outlet. I know, who'd of thought? But they were all organic and cheap and I was there so it made it easy. All that rain we had most of the summer made my garden lush and green. And just as I wondered if I would actually get any fruit on those vines they appeared! Zucchini, broccoli, cucumbers, spinach, lettuce, snow peas. Yellow squash are beginning to appear. Waiting on the carrots. Last week got a few handfuls of cherry tomatoes and I'm waiting on the rest of the tomatoes to redden up. Most of my tomato plants are heirloom, my favorite! My cauliflower plants are big but I don't see anything on them yet.

The chickens have a new home so they aren't free ranging in my garden anymore. This means not only more vegatables, but more eggs, as I don't have to scour the yard looking for all of their sneaky hiding places to lay eggs. Right now we are getting anywhere from 5-10 eggs a day (usually around 6-8). I LOVE having an abundance of eggs in my fridge.

Believe it or not I also LOVE the abundance of zucchini. It has been years since I've grown a prolific zucchini plant, which was beginning to mess with my confidence! I'm running out of ideas for the cucumbers, though. If anyone has any ideas or recipes let me know!

And come on tomatoes.....I'm eagerly awaiting your arrival!

Hot Summer Days

Last weekend summer officially landed in Portland, as we got our first 90 degree days. Cleo and her parents were with us for the weekend so I filled up the kiddie pool and had an old fashioned water fight with Cleo. Guess who won?

Rough Week

I made it to yoga Tuesday morning and pushed myself a little too hard. You are not supposed to push yourself in yoga. I know this. I knew in the moment that I was feeling something in my hips and back. By mid-morning my back and hips were screaming in pain. Wednesday things got worse! So it was a bad choice to spend the better part of the day in my car driving from one part of town to another to another; running errands, attending appointments and trying to find a place for my sister to live when she gets here in two weeks. Wednesday night I got home and started feeling sick; nausea and stomach pain. Thursday that got worse! By the afternoon a raging headache added. I felt very weak and tired. Must be some kind of virus.The strangest part is that I haven't lost my appetite and have felt hungry often in spite of feeling nauseous. The nausea is worse at night (no appetite then) and morning. And better in the afternoon after eating lunch. Very weird!

I feel like a grouchy old lady complaining about my back, stomach and head. Here we are to Friday night. The headache is gone, and I've had improvement in my back and stomach, but I'm not yet back to myself. I haven't had a chance to slow down and rest and recuperate. I need a day to do nothing.

I'm still on the hunt for a decent place for my sister to rent. Today I got scammed on craigslist, which caused us to not move quick enough on another house that would have been almost perfect and we lost it. She is packing up her whole house in one week and headed home to Portland after 18 years in Nashville. Her husband is very sick and she is ready to fall into the arms of her family to help her during this trial. I am so excited to have her home and so sad at what the future may bring for her family.

Please pray for them, and that I will be able to find a place for them to live. They want to be near me and get the kids registered for school as soon as they get here. They need three bedrooms with no stairs and have a limited budget, $1,000 month ideally. They also have two cats. These things are making the search a little more difficult. If you know of anything in the Milwaukie, Clackamas, Happy Valley, SE Portland area please let me know.

County Fair

 We all went on the bumper cars. 

Koen wanted to ride with Mario and he was excited to crash into the girls!

 

Koen was excited that he was tall enough to go on the ride all by himself!

 Emilia wanted Koen to go on the Haunted House ride with her. She told him it was going to be real scary and he was up for it. Me and Mario anxiously waited outside the ride, wondering if he was going to be traumatized. When their little car came through the doors he was smiling and said "that was fun", while Emilia said it was terrifying! Haha!