We love marmots!!!! 

Indian Paintbrush 

We finally got a good picture of Dexter. He tries to lick the camera.  

I decided that smores would be a nice treat. They really don't taste the same when you're not camping. 

My friend Kara and I had a girl's weekend. We went to Port Townsend and the lavendar festival in Sequim. We stayed with Sarah and Paul in thier new house in Port Townsend.  

Typoglycemia

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid! Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but rtaher the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia :)-

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.

For the past year I have been driving a wonderful car. Mainly wonderful because it was free. I like that little word, FREE. A few problems with the car though: freeway driving was just a little scary, my dear husband faithfully changed the spark plugs ONCE A MONTH, I had to add oil every week.
One time one of my student's told his mother that "Mrs. Robinson really needs a new car". This little car has been in our family since 1982, handed down through the generations, starting with my great grandma, who moved to a retirment center years ago and no longer needs it. It will be passed from me to my little brother Dan who is coming home from Mexico in August. It's a good thing he is a mechanic.
I took the liberty of posting a personal add for him a few months ago (in fact he has ignored my attempts to find him a mate despite my success (I will press on no matter what!)) I have something to add to the personal add: Owner of a steel grey 1982 Honda Civic! Bring your own romantic music ladies because there's no radio to distract you from getting lost in his eyes...

Goodbye little grey car, I will miss you.

Extreme car makeover: BEFORE 

Extreme car makeover: AFTER 

Paul works on making a canoe rack for our truck. 

I just attended a Kindergarten Workshop for three days. What? you say. School during summer? Yes, I could actually get paid more if I take classes to further my education, and I need all the help I can get. One of our assignments was to go with our team to Dollar Tree, Big Lots, and Goodwill to find cheap and useful things for our classrooms. Let me tell you the dollar tree is my new favorite place. I also found a giant Clifford and a Dr. Suess game at goodwill. I won some free things as well and got lots of good ideas for my classroom next year.

Before you criticize a co-worker, walk a mile is his shoes. This way, when he gets angry, he'll be a mile away and barefoot.

I love best friends! My friend Sarah emailed me a test to take to see where I stood on the "type A, type b" scale. Turns out I am actually a "type b" personality. I am glad because the actual definition of a "type a" personality is quite scary. I don't think Paul is a "type a" either, though he definitely has some more obsessive tendencies than I. Do you know that he won't drink water from the bathroom sink just because it's in the bathroom? I fill my water glass from the bathroom sink all the time.
Something else I found out: I am of "average" intelligence! Hallelujah!
I will try to post the websites where you can take both the personality tests and the IQ tests. Let me warn you, they are addicting!

Our landlords got a new puppy, Dexter.  

Coming soon: EXTREME CAR MAKEOVER

We have been in Portland for the weekend and inevitably we run into old acquaintances, hear the latest news, etc. Upon hearing some happy news about another couple, Paul exclaimed, "hey, they stole our life." Indeed, at one time our goal was to end up exactly as they are living right now. For two rather "type A" personalities this can be rather maddening. What is more maddening however, is that we can be pretty sure that the life stealers actually stumbled upon our ideal life.
We are planners, list makers, consumer report readers, note takers. We are both first born children. Being this way comes in handy. People think you have it all together, and you usually do. What freedom we can find in stumbling though, in not knowing what the future holds. We are confident beyond a doubt that God has us in his palm.

arial view of our garden 

Anyone want to move to Kansas? They're giving away free land!

http://www.kansasfreeland.com/

I decided to change the format of my blog because my profile and information kept showing up at the bottom of the page. My friend Alysun had the same problem and I noticed that when she changed the format her profile popped back up to the top of the page. How does everyone like it? You can post a comment at the bottom of each post.

Warning: Before you view the pictures I have posted today, Paul asked me to remind you that he is married, and no matter how much you are tempted by his buffness and good looks, he will not answer your letters or phone calls.

Stand back ladies, he's all mine!

This morning Paul and I woke up as usual. As I was going about my morning routine I noticed that the house was strangely quiet. I found Paul outside, still in his pajamas (he calls them sleeping shorts) spraying for bugs. So dedicated! 

Look at that farmer's tan!  

I have a box of canned peaches sitting outside out backdoor on the railing because I have no more room in my cupboards. This morning Paul went out the backdoor (our backdoor opens to the inside of the barn) and there was a baby barn swallow in the box. I put on my garden gloves and took it out and it flew away. Well not really away but to some far corner of the barn where it will learn to divebomb us when we are coming and going to our cars. 

This is a red fox we saw at Mt. Ranier on Wednesday. He was only about three feet away from my car door. Actually he was so close that I was a little scared and I started to roll up my window. 

We did not go to Yosemite after all. We took a day trip to Mt. Ranier and it satisfied out outdoor cravings for a while. We want to go back to Mineral Lake in the town on Mineral, Washington to fish. Actually we would like to live in Mineral, Washington (population 250) someday. Paul and I bought fishing liscenses for the first time this year and so far we have caught one fish and boken one pole. We are about seventy dollars into this (liscenses, poles) and have one tiny little fish. My brother Daniel reminded me that most people don't really fish so that they can eat fish, they fish because it's a great hobby. He said this one time when I complained because I didn't catch anything one day. I guess this is true but I still like to think that I will eat enough fish this summer to come out on top!
So our sister in law, Anna, has inspired us to start our own business. She has started her own making _____(I won't tell because I don't want anyone to copy her idea). Paul is struggling to find a job this summer because the job market around Lewis County just really stinks. We decided to try and sell some of his pictures. We'll see how it goes. He has some really, really good ones and everyone is always encouraging him to sell them. We are in the process of learning how to use photoshop.
I am absolutely loving this summer break thing. Tomorrow we will garage sale (I always missed the good friday sales before school got out) and help out my brother (Pastor Kyle) at a youth group event. It's so nice to have time to do things that you enjoy doing. Before you get jealous remember that before school got out I was working like crazy! I will be working even more like crazy next year with kindergarten AND first grade. So I will enjoy this time now. I think I may be making up for lost blogging so pardon my longwindedness.

Penguin at the Point Defiance Zoo 

Paul on the steps of the capital building in Olympia where we took a tour. 

Today I used a new recipe for dinner. It was a chicken with a honey mustard glaze. I like to hear what Paul's opinion is about new recipes because sometimes I won't make them again if he doesn't like them. It doesn't hurt my feelings at all, really. He always tells me the truth and this time he said it was just an O.K. recipe, not really outstanding. I like that he tries to say something positive, though. This time he said, "It certainly is a very colorful recipe, honey." I love him!

School is finally over and the long days stretch out before me. September seems so far away. I am on my fourth day of freedom and have not yet run out of things to do (and I do count daily naps as something to do). Paul is not faring so well. He is a much more action driven person for which being AT home means that you are NOT out doing something marvelous and wonderful in the wilderness. We were in Portland this last weekend and did some fun things. I was able to try some goat's milk ice cream from Whole Foods. I have an allergy to cow's milk which keeps me from eating two of my favorite things - cheese and ice cream. I recently found out that goat's milk does not effect me in the same way. It was actually heavenly and did really taste goaty at all, though Paul swears he can tell a difference. Both Paul and I love to try different kinds of goat cheese, this may sound a little fancy schmancy to you but Paul started snacking on my goat cheese behind my back one time when there were no other snacks and has developed a taste for it. We went to Mosaic, our old church and saw all of our friends. We went out to lunch with our friends Kara and Jason. We stocked up on groceries from Trader Joes. That was Portland Oregon.
We were discussing going to Yosemite tomorrow, but is seemed a bit spur of the moment. Paul just said, "let's go". I don't know where we are going.

8 more days of school left!!!!

Our baby tomatos - Stay way WILD ANIMALS! We are not wanting to spend the money to put up a fence but want bunnies, deer and the LIKE to stay away. Ozzie (our dog) is not really very smart and likes to pull out the popsickle sticks that we use to mark our produce. Any hints? 

Farmer Paul planting our garden!