A couch is born!

I am finished! The slipcover is beautiful, if I do say so myself! I would be doing cartwheels if I could! I am so happy that I finally finished this! Yay!!!!!!!!

A funny story....

So, while Charles was here he wanted to make some zucchini bread with our monstrous zucchini. So he started while I was out. I am a bit odd in my cooking/baking as I have given myself over somewhat to the Eat 4 Your Blood Type way of living. I am not completely changed, but I do use some different foods. Here is a picture of my baking supplies. Some of the containers are labeled, some are not. Only one or two are labeled correctly. The sugar is labeled "pasta", the brown sugar is labeled correctly, the corn starch is labeled "baking soda", the white spelt flour labeled "cake", and the whole spelt flour labeled "unbleached". If you double click the picture, you will be able to see the labels. So, imagine Charles trying to figure out where my white wheat flour is stored without knowing I also have spelt flour in there. I walked in and he said he had figured out the white flour was labeled "cake". Oops. I told him it was spelt. Little did I realize he probably also used corn starch instead of baking soda. The white wheat flour is in a canister on the counter below the cupboard. He would never even think to look there! The corn starch thing wasn't even discovered until about a week later when he was baking a cake! I forgot to tell him that spelt flour uses less liquid. You should have seen the bread. It was about and inch and a half high, maybe two inches. It was so moist, it didn't really seem like it was cooked all the way when you look at it. I should have taken a picture. It was pretty funny. Charles wasn't too thrilled with it, but the kids, Jeff, and I loved it! It tasted fine, just REALLY moist and dense! Poor Charles will probably never want to bake at my house again. So now I have determined that I really need to relabel all of my baking goods. Sorry for the confusion Charles! The bread tasted good to me! I think I made up for my confusing kitchen when I made an apron for him to give to Kelly, who, by the way, is his girlfriend again- for real this time! Yay! Maybe she will send a picture of herself in the apron...

Parting is such sweet sorrow...

So, tomorrow Charles will be leaving us. He is heading off to learn to be a Naturopathic Doctor in Seattle at Bastyr. We will miss him. I am not so sure that he will be so sad to have a little peace and quiet. Natalie has not left him alone much.
I think he really has enjoyed spending time with his favorite nieces. hehehe. I sure have enjoyed his help with the dishes! It has been hard to do much with my right hand being out of commission. I had a lump between my knuckles removed, and couldn't get the stitches wet. When they took the stitches out, the incision wasn't closed yet. It is starting to heal a little more now. It is really hard to remember not to use your dominant hand! I'd show you a picture, but its not very pretty!

Here she is playing the guitar while Charles sings (and plays). Charles cut his hair the next day!

Friday night we headed over to the coast. It was chilly and very windy. Charles and I are the only ones who got out of the car. I stayed long enough to get a few pictures and then went back to the warm car while he played a little longer. The pictures aren't great because it wasn't very light with all the ocean mist.


Charles stood on a log and leaned forward to see how long the wind would keep him up!

I am very sad to see Charles go. But, Jessica and I already have plans to go to Seattle in November for a weekend! Maybe more family will come visit soon......

First Day of School! (and other news)

The girls right before we left for the school.

Alona sitting at her desk in her classroom.
My brother Charles has arrived! He showed up yesterday for my birthday! Okay, maybe not because it was my birthday, but he is here anyway! I am so glad to have him visit for a while before he heads up to Seattle for school.
He came into the living room this morning and saw the girls as we were getting ready to leave. He asked if the school had uniforms! No, I am just a freak. Sorry to disappoint. I bought these outfits for the girls a couple of months ago and they will probably be wearing them in our holiday picture, too.

(now for the other news)
Charles came out to the living room this evening and announced that he was going for a run. When he returned he sat on the couch for a bit. Then, out of the blue, he smiles and, laughing lightly, says that Kelly emailed and said its over. (Charles knows I am including this in my blog, so don't be alarmed) I can't believe people are okay with email breakups. At least it was nice and not in a text. So far he is doing okay. We'll see how he feels over the next couple of weeks. He just wants to make sure people don't get mad and think Kelly is awful or mean. I guess he knew it was probably coming from previous discussions they had.
Oh, and Jeff got me a SWEET iPod Touch for my birthday! Thanks, Jeff! You are the most awesome husband and the love of my life!

Changes!

Now that Jeff has officially given notice, I can tell everyone. Jeff is leaving Symantec. He got a job at Garage Games. It is a local company, so we won't be moving. It has come at the perfect time. Last Wednesday, Symantec announced that their IT department would be outsourced through EDS. That includes Jeff's position. It would maybe pay the same, but the benefits are lacking compared to what we currently have with Symantec. The very next day, he got the call for the new job. He is very excited to move out of IT, which is not what he went to school to do. He really wants to go into game programming, and this should open the door for it. He will be doing QA (quality assurance) work like he did at Symantec, but he should also be able to do a little more programming and eventually move to programming for good.
He starts his new job on September 8th. So I get to spend the next two weeks going to doctors and dentists. Tomorrow, Alona has a doctor appointment tomorrow morning and a dentist appointment in the afternoon. She has many cavities and it will take at least 2 appointments to take care of them. She was fine 6 months ago, so I don't know what happened. On Thurdsay, Ashley gets sealants on her 6 year molars. On Sept 2nd Alona has her second dentist appointment, and on Sept 4th I get to have a lump removed from my hand. We had to fit it all in while we have insurance that covers everything and uses up our flexible spending money.
With all that and 3 birthdays, the next 2 weeks should be really busy. Oh, and school starts Sept 3rd. And Alona is starting Kindergarten this year. Friday we are having dinner and a birthday party with Jeff's family. Saturday is Alona and Jeff's birthday and Alona wants to go to Chuck E. Cheese, Monday is Labor Day, Tuesday is my birthday, and Wednesday is the first day of school. At least we can rest on Sunday!
That's all the news for now!

This week....

Tuesday the kids played in the tupperware box. We ordered a few things and it came in a giant box. Who needs toys?


Wednesday night I made spelt brownies (from the Spelt Healthy cookbook). They were yummy!

Thursday was a friend's birthday, so I started making her a gift. I just finished it, but at least it is beautiful! Hope she likes it. In case you were wondering, it is the Amy Butler Swing Bag and Scarf/Sash pattern.

This week has been hot. It's finally a real summer. Saturday was over 100˚ F. Luckily, there is hardly any humidity, so it is actually nice!

Camping adventures!

We went camping over the weekend and first few days of the week. We drove down to Southern Oregon and camped at Joseph Stewart State Park. Lost Creek Reservoir is part of the park and it flows to the Rogue River. We rented a boat on Monday and spent the whole day on the water! It was a blast! Unfortunately, we got too much sun. I got sick and Jeff, Jessica, and Josh all hurt due to sunburn. Ashley got burned on her shoulders, but Alona and Natalie came out with no injuries! We left a day early because no one could stand to be in the sun. All in all, it was worth it!

Alona coming out of the cold water at the "beach" area.

Ashley and Jeff at the beach.

Jeff and Jessica making breakfast before our boating adventure!

The girls playing at the campground.

Jeff and the girls on the boat.

Josh and Jessica on the boat.

Natalie and me in the middle of the lake!