B is for …

B e e s

B e r r i e s

B e a u t i f u l  daisies

fo

b u i l d i n g   “houses”

b a d decor

aren’t those the ugliest end tables (?) you have ever seen??

(Sadly, I am almost sure we had these when I was a kid…

maybe I am crazy?  ** sister Kelly informed me it was the Roller Skating Rink that had these when we were kids**  We must have gone there A LOT!??  ha ha! )

B I G  Noses

B I R D S   ~

quack  quack….

B is for Bad Luck.

Man Alive.

this week alone

~ I gashed my thumb which still has a bruise, a lump and a cut but is healing nicely.

~I did something to my foot (???) pain near my ankle is limiting the use of my foot!?

what the ….???

AND…

Oh this is a good one…

~ I dropped my $200 camera !!!

B is for BUSTED!!

my less than one year old Nikon Coolpix L100…

I dropped it right onto the concrete this morning

Fabulous!  just fabulous!

Shattered the LCD viewing screen

There is NO other viewing options on that particular camera!!

no little peek hole thing… NOPE!

B is for Broken!!

what is up with my BAD LUCK?!!

B is for B U Z Z A R  D  !!!!

B is for Bummer

B is for Bad Mood

B is for cranky Blogger

B is for BED

I am SO going to bed now!

sleeping always makes everything all Better!

(All photos in this post are recently taken right BEFORE I BROKE my camera)

*sigh*

Please ~

Call me Mrs. Brown

Really

Mrs. Charlie Brown

Does anybody have a dollar I could BORROW?  =)
**  b is for bye bye Mrs. Grumpy Pants **   it is the day after now…

I went to bed and woke up on the right side of the bed today… =)

I will try to get a non-grumpy post up for later tonight!!  ha ha!

working on Pacific Standard time mind you… and you know… later for me means after 9 pm!!

2 Little Monkeys

Sittin in a tree

H. U. G. G. I. N. G.

(you thought I was going to say kissing didn’t you?!)

First came love

Then came marriage

( and then comes the honeymoon !! )

AND THEN

Came babies in the baby carriage!

(no pics sorry we hadn’t gone digital yet)

and the years go by

THEY grow up

and  then  YOU   join  THIS   club

And then comes…

what comes next?

Anniversaries?

yes sir E bob

Yesterday we celebrated our 12th anniversary !

For some reason we always end up here on our anniversary?!

I wonder why?

Only this year we brought the dog

the temps were so high we felt bad leaving him crated in this heat for too long!

nothing like a romantic walk with the dog!

We Did eat at a Fab Thai Restaurant

before we collected the dog for our Romantic walk!

after our romantic walk

we took the dog and went to buy fancy cupcakes

at a place called The Bearded Lady

I know!!!

I had to tell you b/c it is just WEIRD

and just the kind of thing we would do….  lol!

anywhooo…

I promised my hubby I would not gush over him on my blog

So … I won’t “gush”…

besides it is hard to feel all mushy and sentimental in 96 degree weather without AC!

more on that in a minute!

ha ha!

I love love love that we have laughed our way through 12 years ~ full of fun adventures and many trials in our married life together!  Life did not turn out the way we dreamed it would… it did however… turn out just the way God intended it to… we only have a glimpse of what God’s plan is for our lives… We have endured more than most couples endure… (you can click on the orange letters there and read “our story” )  It is amazing what you can go through with Christ in your heart… giving you the strength and love to make it through … and the laughter!!  I love that the most about US… We LAUGH!!  I love to laugh and it is a HUGE blessing!  We have learned much… grown much… and managed to laugh more than we cry I think!  Considering ALL the things we have been through in the short 12 years we have been together… I think we are DAM good together!  don’t get me wrong… we have had some breaking points… We are not perfect and have plenty of moments when we are irritated with each other.. =)  We have a long way to go… but we have come SO far!  God has blessed us with patience, kindness, thankfulness, selflessness (mostly) and a like minded sense of humor to get through all the bumps in our road.  We both put God and Family first… We respect each other … and show each other love… in between work, soccer, piano, schooling, girl scouts, swimming, etc. etc.  You get the idea!  I am grateful for him in my life!  He is a wonderful friend, a fabulous spouse and a great daddy to my babies … a girl couldn’t ask for anything more!   Except maybe a vacation Alone with my Man… now that would be fabulous!!  (one day.. *sigh*)  I can not imagine looking back at our life in 12 more years!  But I look forward to it!! I just hope that there are less trials and more adventures in the next 12 years!!  Keepin it real folks!  =)

Trying not to gush here…

do you think I did ok?

That wasn’t gushy was it?

Speaking of my man

Its HIS birthday today!

Yep… we got married the day before his birthday!

It is a brilliant idea ladies… he will NEVER forget our anniversary!

(um … wait…that is NOT true… he DID forget one year!! ha ha!)

*ahem*

see not gushy at all!

Right?!!

Tonight we will eat out at the Restaurant of his choice …

he picked Sushi!  YUM!  well.. alright … honestly…

I only eat the California Rolls.. but still… YUMMO!

and then we are going to go Swimming!

Because our anniversary present to each other was a gym membership to a local gym…

that has 4 pools!

Hallelujah!

=)

Looking forward to another  12 years of Healthy(er) living and Love … together!!

Thank you Lord for a Wonderful spouse to share my life with!

Amen!

If you will excuse me now…

Sushi is calling!

Jenn~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS  Our weather has been miserably HOT this week… 95 +++

so this is what I have resorted to…

no shame

this is me right after I dropped the hose…

Thank you Love for capturing me in one of my best moments!

at least I was cooler than him!!  =)

and for those of you who LIKE 95 degree weather…

WHAT is WRONG with you??!!   =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(the Monkey cards were purchase in Cannon Beach and can be found on the web at www.monkeymoments.net)

Thuumbs Up

Thumbs up to me…

Late last night I managed to put a huge gash across the top of my thumb!

Are You Kidding Me??  is what came to mind!  =)

my life is full of never ending medical  “hiccups”…

Grrrr…

anyway…

I can hardly type now

see

Good Times!!

I am using a splint to keep it straight so I don’t bend open the huge cut!

it wasn’t pretty…

lots and lots of blood

clean cut though

just deep!!

if the location had been different

I would have gone for stitches it is that deep!

anyway…

blogging will be a little challenging this week!

maybe it will help me ramble less!!  (not likely) ha ha!

I have much to tell ya all…

for now photos will have to be worth a thousand words!!  =)

Here is a little of what we have been up to this week!

new shrub beds

cleaning EXTREMELY messy rooms

how does it get SOOOOO bad in kids rooms SO FAST!??

I told em off with their heads if I find messy rooms  next week!!  =)

I did…really!

I may have laughed when I said it…but I said it!!

This

Happened

5 times in 3 days !!!

I think

stupid toilet paper eating dog!!

for the record

he stops and drops it for my hubby almost instantly

not so much for me

there was a good 5 minute chase before I gave up

and got the camera!!!

Bad Merlin!!

and THIS

is AMAZING!!

my water fearing non-swimmers are swimming this summer!!!

Whaaaaaaaaaa Hoooooooo!

they went from nearly terrified of water

especially near the face or eyes

to THIS

AMAZING!!

We signed up for lessons right away before they changed their minds!

Now they are swimming the free style across the width of the pool!!

Fears tackled!

Amen!!

Now we are at the pool every chance we get!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

alright… I need motrin!!

I would cry “mommy” and suck my thumb

right now

if I could

but it hurts!  =)

I will comment very short and sweet as I read your blogs this week…

m,kay?!!

excellent!

and I will use mostly photos this week for my blog updates!

because this was painful to type without my thumb!

meaning it takes too long, difficult to type ~ lots of typos being corrected and using my thumb literally hurts!

try it just for fun…

type your comments to me without your right thumb

I dare ya!!

come on… it will be fun (ny) !!   =)

Blessings y’all ~

Jenn~

Oh ~ PS:

Blessing!!

My little man with low vision (20/200)  saw THREE shooting Stars!!  He thinks!

We could see hundreds of stars in the night sky …

Sammy counted about 5 stars he could see… =(

heart breaking!

We saw many meteors Thursday night…  Sammy only manged to see three meteors!!   Yay for little blessings!  I am thankful for the things he DOES see… and try not to dwell on what he can not!   =)

Sometimes…

You just need to stop and SMELL the roses

or LOOK at the moon

ya know?

=)

Tonight is the start of the Perseid Meteor Shower…fun fun!

A great night to slow down and snuggle up in sleeping bags in the back yard!  =)

that is what we are planning to do!

blessings~

Jenn

the sista weekend away

This is my sista

KK

she funny.

We may or may not be mocking these fairy sunglasses at this moment

what on earth was that designer thinking?

I apologize if you like said fairy sunglasses….

I am sorry… really I am…

I don’t know why they made us laugh so hard! =)

anyway…

KK and I spent a LONG time in the car Friday..

just to spend 2 nights in Depoe Bay Oregon

before we spent a LONG time in the car on Sunday …

We stopped at Cannon Beach long enough to put our feet in the sand

and mock fairy sunglasses

before driving the rest of the way to Depoe Bay …

We arrived kinda late on Friday …

It didn’t seem crazy at the time we planned it… but that was a LOT of driving!

next time I think we would stay longer or go some where much closer!  😉

Saturday We played on Agate Beach Oregon

not to be confused with Agate Beach California

Beautiful!!  look at that sand!

yet there was not a shell nor an agate anywhere to be found!!

just beautiful  sand ~ under a sea of fog ~ which lifted as we were leaving!

The lack of shells & agates was odd for a beach called Agate beach!!

Funny!

Then we visited The Devils Punchbowl & Otter Rock

both of which were beautiful!!

Definitely worth stopping to admire and play if you have the time!

odd though

not a devil nor an otter were anywhere to be found there either!

snicker snicker  =)

I am hopeless!!

We saw a crazy man feeding these crazy squirrels

which you could pet if you were dumb enough to do so

We watched a wee fight break out between 2 squirrels

while a boy was petting them by the peanut bag

he could have lost a finger!!!

*shudder*

wild animals are exactly that

wild

don’t feed wild animals people!!

We fed a raccoon at our back door once…

Big mistake!!  just sayin!!

anywho…

We spent the rest of our afternoon shopping in Depoe Bay

the shops were a little too touristy

We didn’t come home with any treasures… =)

It was a lovely getaway with one of my sisters…

though next time I think we won’t drive so far!

I think we spent more time in the car than we did ‘playin’ …

oops!  =)

and I realized I thrive on exploring

I think I need to learn how to relax more!!

maybe?

what do you think KK??  =)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What do you all do to “relax”  … especially when you are away for a few days?

do you prefer to explore or lay by the pool with a book?   or something like that?

curious minds want to know!  =)

The Great Thing About Summer

Is that you have Fun plans every other weekend!!  =)

Last week I was here

with my babies and my man!

And this weekend

I will be somewhere down here

with my sister!

No KIDS!!

Happy Happy Joy Joy!

Have a great weekend!  =)

See ya all Monday!

Jenn~

Bad Bad Kitty

Because of this BEAST

I will never ever EVER walk barefoot in my backyard again!

Ever!

*shudder*

I will wear boots.

Big, Knee high, leather, work boots.

with Steel toes!

IF I even GO in my own back yard ever again!

Bad bad kitty!

brought this home yesterday!

I mean as if dead bird parts are not horrible enough to deal with!!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!??

Nana proudly brought that horrible slithery reptile to my back door!!

*shudder*

I thought maybe it was dead

since it did not move the entire time I freaked out!

I may have screamed like a little girl

ran around like a chicken

cried for my mommy

sucked my thumb

and made an absolutely frantic idiotic display of myself in front of the neighbors

and my children

where on earth is my man when I NEED him!! ??

how could he go to work at a time like this??

*cough, cough*

After I acted like a raving lunatic

I bravely poked the darn thing with my shovel

and it did NOT move

therefore I figured it was dead

safe to pick it up with the shovel

and HUCK it into the woods behind my house

like we do with all the other dead critters we “receive”

there are perks to having scary trees that blow in the wind behind your house

anywho

Look at those injuries (if you dare)

surely it was dead right?

Alright!

I guess maybe he IS looking right at me

with those beady little creepy eyes

planning its attack…

creepy snake!

anyway yesterday I was NOT rational

I was terrified!

I was trying to save my babies from the horrible slithering creepy reptile

that the stupid cat drug in

so I figured he was dead because I wanted it to be dead!

that would have made the whole thing less horrible!

So I picked the darn twisted thing up in the shovel

and you know what it did?

stuck out its tongue at me

and slithered right off the shovel

at which point I really flipped my lid

and dropped the shovel, screamed like a little girl, and did the “I am freaked out dance” before I jumped onto the steps of the porch waving my arms like a lunatic… screaming the whole time of course!  I nearly peed my pants and cried all at once!   or something like that!

and then I asked my daughter for the camera again

(she had been holding since I took the “I thought it was dead” picture)

So ~ I sucked it up

stepped off the porch

and tried to capture his picture slithering around

sticking out his tongue at me

before I bravely chopped the sucker in half with my shovel….

which I never got the chance to do

and I would probably NOT be able to bring myself to do anyway

but it seemed right to try to kill the creepy slithering creepy snake

But the slithering little sucker got away!!

right after I snapped this picture

right after he stuck his tongue out at me!

it just disappeared in that small patch of grass

and now…

he lives  under my patio

I am sure of it!

Growing into a giant slithering reptile

who will slither up my leg  one day while I am walking bare foot in my grass

*shudder*

SEE now  I will have to wear boots with steel toes for the rest of the summer

or use my neighbors back yard

because I will never EVER step bare foot onto my grass again

Ever.

Until next week.

ever.

So there.

I confess.

I fall apart at the seams when there is a small slithering snake present!

so why ?

why is it that I can hold this?

without fear?

Go figure?

I might have gotten a little worried when it started wrapping around my leg there…

Apparently I am not afraid of giant pet snakes

but don’t come anywhere near me with a small slithery looking snake

Thank you very much!

There you have it.

I’m a chicken!

sometimes.

=)

What is the worst thing your cat has brought home?

that is if you have a cat

or had a cat

maybe your neighbors cat brings you things?

do you want to know what my cat is doing now?

how can she lay around and pretend like NOTHING happened yesterday?!

=)

Jenn

Speaking of Really Tall Trees

Have you ever seen a 30 some odd foot high ox?

or

a 49 foot 2 inch Paul Bunyan?

Facts:

My nearly 5 foot tall children are standing on Paul’s boot.

Paul is nearly 50 feet .

The tree pictured below is nearly 300 feet

The worlds tallest tree which fell in 1991 was 370 feet

The current worlds tallest tree is 360 some odd feet

It is also in the Redwoods

but we didn’t see it to my knowledge

We did walk on the fallen worlds tallest tree

before we saw this Paul Bunyan

and this giant tree

which  is 300 feet

that is 6 of those Paul Bunyans stacked one on top of the other

the same Paul Bunyan that my children are standing on.  =)

Perspective!

Crazy, eh?!

You can find Paul about 11 miles  outside of Crescent City CA (I think)

At The Trees of Mystery

where you can walk a trail and view some funky tall trees

before riding this up up UP into the forest

for the low low price of $43 dollars for a family of four

(or something like that) =)

even on a cloudy day

it is a fun little adventure

for the scary ride into the deep dark forest!

WAY up in the Sky!

did I mention scary?

don’t let those semi smiling faces fool ya…

they were scared too!

my heart stopped every time our cable car rolled over the support Poles

the poles holding the pully thing

At the top there is a small board walk

but the view was less than spectacular

on this particular cloudy coastal day

not even worth showing you ~ I swear!

We did spy this beauty up there

it is a fallen tree with 5 or 6 trees growing off of the fallen trunk!

New Life sprouting off of old growth ~ Crazy!

If my memory serves me correctly

the Redwood trees do not depend on a root base for growth!

Amazing.

Crazy.

Oh. Speaking of Crazy.

on our way up the trail to the sky train we saw

The wedding cathedral trees (??)

people actually book real weddings here

they get married standing in front of these 300 some odd feet high cathedral trees!

I don’t get it…

odd.

I wonder how much dough it costs?!  =)

hello … google?

it was however worth the $43 some odd dollars we paid

to go into the Trees of Mystery

We enjoyed it.

and Paul even winked at me!

Really!

Just before we went to the Trees of Mystery

We were at this lovely beach…

It was only $8 to visit

and I love love loved it there!

Though the trek down was a little unsettling…

Agate Beach in Patricks Point State Park

was beautiful!!

seriously

those who come down the scary trail

only make it about 20 to 40 feet down the beach

before they sit

and and start to dig in the sea of rocks

looking for agates

pretty stones

beautiful rocks

Everyone just sits around on the sea of rocks and digs

it is so funny!

I am not sure why I did not take pictures of the groups of people digging!

Everyone leaves with pockets FULL of rocks

Hysterical!

I had to be dragged off the beach by my family!!

I LOVED it!

2 hours is how long we stayed

if even that ~ it was tragic!

I would plan a whole day there next time.

we didn’t explore much down that gorgeous coast line

*sigh*

we had to hike up the unsettling trail backwards

with an extra 25 lbs in our pockets.

Fine… maybe not exactly 25 lbs.

well now THAT is just embarrassing!

*ahem*

We did find a few true agates ~ I think?

I need to Go back there!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

are you done hearing about my trip yet?

because tomorrow I have the MOST beautiful place to show you!

Our world is plum full of incredible places to see!

Blessings~

Jenn

I Stand in Awe

The Redwoods ~

are big trees

crazy big trees

soooooooooo big

you can drive through it  =)

Soooo  big

when you are 4 foot 8 inches

or 4 foot 4 inches

you have to jump really high in the air to touch the top

of the bottom of the tree!  =)

I live in Washington

We have trees

thousands of trees

but these are seriously BIG trees!  =)

you can go in them

IN them

and look up a couple hundred feet

and see a hole made by lightening

that caused the inside of the tree to burn away

yet there is plenty of tree left to make a cool room in it

that you could host a small dinner party in if you wanted to!

it even has a door in it!

Crazy!

and this tree

has a giant growth on it

I forget what these giant growths are called ~ anyone???

aren’t they creepy weird?

the base on this tree alone is massive

never mind the giant mass!

yikes!

I asked my 6 foot tall man to stand next to this creepy huge mass

on this massive tree trunk

to add perspective

then I tested him

and asked him to touch the creepy mass!

because I am weird that way!  =)

it seriously creeped me out ~ ew!

but it did fascinate me too!

and Look at THIS tree …

that fell to the ground once upon a time

(I would not have wanted to be around when THIS tree feel to the ground!~)

remember my man is about 6 feet tall!

Look at the base of this obscenely large tree!!

just lying around in the middle of the Redwood forest

here are my almost 5 feet tall kids

more than 6 feet high up

standing in the center of the root base of this tree!!

AWE!!

and it isn’t even the worlds largest tree!!

Here is my family standing on the crumbled trunk of what used to be the worlds tallest tree ~ 370 some odd feet high ~ before it fell in 1991.

Can you imagine the sound?

The rumble?

Amazing!

this is a shot about half way down the 370 foot tree

the kids walked the entire length of the tree

can you see them??  =)

Are you tired of looking at these amazing trees yet?

I can not tell you how many massive trees we stood in like this

in a crack

in the trunk

of an obscenely large tree

I started saying “yeah yeah… you’ve seen one giant tree you’ve seen them all”  =)

but I didn’t mean it ~

They really make you stand in awe

complete and utter amazement

that they grew from a seed once upon a time!

The scary trees that blow in the wind in my back yard

pale in comparison!

Each massive tree made me feel so tiny.

Each massive tree gave me the feeling of total AWE.

Awe:  the overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration; a mixed feeling of reverence, fear and wonder caused by something majestic!

They were just trees.

but

Trees made by the same God who created me.

The same God who cares about my every breath.

The same God who loves me unconditionally.

The God whom I stand in Awe of ~ all He is and Does and has done and will do ~

in my little life.

Nature always brings my heart into a place of  awe with God.

Just think … Even when the Giant trees fall…

They give back to the earth and to the animals.

The fallen tree has a purpose.

In the same way my life has a purpose.

Even when I feel like that fallen tree.

or the hollowed out tree.

or the giant tree with a massive growth on it.

or the giant tree still standing in all its wonder.

They are all uniquely made by God ~

and they all have made millions stand in awe ~

of their beauty and wonder and mystery

uniquely their own.

I know God can and does use us more than He uses those amazing trees ~

to bless those around us.

to feed the earth.  =)

If we feel hollowed out, fallen or lumpy ~ God can and will use those things or times in our life to reveal Himself to  others ~ in his perfect beautiful plan ~ just as we are!

Those trees have no idea how beautiful they make the world ~

they are just trees.    =)

xo Jenn

PS

Yesterdays post was photographed on the  Southern Oregon Coast and Crescent City California!  =)






A week ago …

I was here

and here

looking at this

with this guy

and these guys

wait a second !!

who are these guys??

and how did they get there?

I was with THESE guys

leaping

jumping

dancing

there is something about the beach….

*sigh*

a week ago we were here

The weather was a little cooler than we expected

but we didn’t mind

we found some castles to play in

and logs to crawl walk through

Can you guess where we were on day 1 and 2 of our road trip??   😉

I’ll give you one clue… it was on the coast!  (ha ha ha ha)