Currently Reading: "No Dark Valley" by Jamie Langston Turner. This is my fourth JL Turner book this year. The Suncatchers was my favorite. 

My Fascination with Babies

Recently my friend Alysun wrote a blog about being a stay at home mom. It started me thinking about my interactions with people in my life who stay at home with their kids. I always find myself asking tons of questions like, "when does he sleep?" "what do you feed her?" "what is your day like?" "how did you decide whether or not to put her on a schedule?" I think I am mostly trying to picture what my life will be like someday when I have a baby. How will I balance things I already like to do like camping? Can you do that with a baby? I need to know these things. There always comes a point in the conversation where I think to myself "I am being extremely nosy and I need to stop". Thankfully, my mom counsels pregnant women for her job. She has charts, books, etc. The problem is, I know that even with all my questions answered I will still feel, as Alysun said, "grossly underqualified" to be a mom.

This past weekend we went camping at Tahklahk Lake in the Gifford Pinchot Forrest. Enjoy the pictures. 

Lupin in the meadow 

Reflection of Mt. Adams in Tahklahk Lake 

Paul climbed to the top of a rocky lava flow on Sunday. We had beautiful weather. 

These are the four fish (one is hiding behind) that I caught on Friday. I caught two more on Sunday bringing my grand total for the summer to seven. 

Rebecca and I clean fish like real backwoods mountain women.  

I looked back at my list of things I wanted to accomplish this summer just to see how I was doing.

List of things I want to do this summer:

1. Garden (paul has this one covered although I sometimes feel guilty about not doing my fair share of gardening)
2. Eat most meals outside (it hasn't really been warm enough yet)
3. Go for a walk every day (failing in this category)
4. Learn to fish (check)
5. Read a book by a new author (Jamie Langston Turner)
6. Learn to sew (I am going to start working on this any day now)
7. Convince Paul and my landlords to let me get a dog (the next best thing, Dexter)
8. Train my new dog (We have been trying, but Ozzie is not a good influence)

So far, so good. I still have a good month and a half of freedom before I go back to school, and to tell you the truth, I am starting to get excited about September. I'm hopeless - I miss school!

Interesting fact for today:

Chehalis has it's own oxygen bar. Paul and I predict it's demise will take mere months. We'll keep you updated.