Summer Vacation - Week 12

It's that time of year when dinner happens to consist of whatever is ripe in the garden. It doesn't get any better than this!
We still have the kitten... and she's taken over the whole house. She's the only cat I've found that isn't afraid of water. We can spray her all day when she gets on the counter in the kitchen and she just stands there until she gets bored. She fits right in around here. Wierdo.
The girls have been begging me all summer to buy them some canvas bags to paint. Took me all summer, but I finally did it.
The girl turned 14. I'm a mean mom and I make them decorate their own birthday cake. Actually, they love it and look very much forward to it.
Despite the neglect, and the weeds, the flowers bloomed anyway, and are almost done in fact. I'll be sad to see them go.


Hosted by Cecily and Lolli

Photostory Friday - Summer Vacation Week 2

My daughter is officially an 8th grader. And she'll be in junior high! We're doomed. The husband thought about not letting her grow up, and then she brought home her portfolio from art class this year and handed him this:

Which he promptly hung in his office above his desk. Yep, her totally awesome dad is totally letting her grow up again. At least this week.

The apple trees are in full blossom... if the wind doesn't blow off all the blossoms, they will probably freeze. Like I really care. They aren't good apples anyway.
What? Doesn't everyone have a chop saw in their bathroom? Just in case you are curious as to why I do... read here... and it has everything to do with my awesome husband.
Speaking of destruction, I was on my way out to pick the asparagus and stopped to look at my petunias that I thought were just wilty... turns out that some sort of little critter has eaten them. Needless to say, that critter can eat some d-con next time. Little bastages. P.S. my awesome husband did it, not me.
Oh, now this is going to be a fun project. I promised the awesome husband that he wouldn't have to do it for me... and I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into, but it looks awesome in my head.
Raise your hand if you've ever had a famous square ice cream cone? Just one of the perks of getting to spend another day driving around with the awesome husband this week. You'll be able to read all about it in next weeks "Photowalk"... which I will upload right after I find my camera cord to the other camera I used.
And to top the week off... I took the Ish in for a haircut. She has this thing about chewing on her hair and she'd chewed so much off on one side, not only was it terribly lopsided, but I'm pretty sure she is going to hack up a hairball one of these days. It won't be pretty, me thinks. I love this new hairstylist we've discovered. So much, I let her wax my eyebrows... because I'm into pain. Isn't she cute???

See more great photos this week at:


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and
GIVE ME YOUR BEST SHOT hosted by Better in Bulk

Give me your best shot...

Giggles and smiles .... all on a beautiful Thanksgiving afternoon...

Give me your best shot...

This may not be my BEST shot, but it is definitely one of my favorites - and not just because of the fabulous decor in this public restroom at the lake. It's my favorite because of the child who is analyzing what's inside the stall of this public restroom at the lake.

She's a deep thinker. She's obstinate. She's stubborn. She purposely does things just to push other peoples buttons. Oh wait, she has no use for buttons. Literally. Want to ruin her day, just ask her to wear a shirt with a button on it. She hates the color yellow, especially yellow drinking cups. She refused to use her bathroom for two weeks after her sister flushed a moth down the toilet. She will no longer touch a potato after she found out we sometimes sneak onions into our hashbrowns.

She argues about wearing too short skirts to school. "What gives the school the right to tell me that my skirt is too short? It's MY body and my legs and my skirt! Look! My fingertips go to the bottom of the skirt and so what if my arms are short and my legs are long. Idiots!"

And right at the moment this picture was taken, she was telling me how much she loathes industrial stainless steel toilets in public restrooms, no matter how clean they are. Why can't they just be normal white ones like we have at home?

Did I mention she will be nine in three days? Someday... she will make a fantastic teenager. I can see it now.

Give me your best shot...

Today - I sent my baby off to school. It's not like it was her first day or anything, she's a third grader. But, it was still hard, none the less. Mostly because she had such a nervous stomach this morning and her nervous stomachs are never a good thing. She's in a brand new school that as of last night, still wasn't totally finished (the kids are getting brown bag lunches for the next few days until they finish the kitchen) with lots of new kids she's never met (they realigned all the boundaries). She gets her nerves from her mom and her stomach from her dad. But, I know she'll do great, because she IS great.

Give me your best shot...

My best shot of the week isn't actually mine - but it was taken with my camera, so that counts, right?

My husband took this shot. If it wasn't for the fact that he has no desire how to learn to use a camera, he'd be a better photographer than me!

Give me your best shot on Photostory Friday

While taking family pictures, we stopped at a new park to play. It was a beautiful evening and we were the only ones there. The kids were having fun playing and being silly. Then my 15 year old noticed this sign:
And we had to leave. Okay, we didn't HAVE to leave, nobody else was there to make him stop the horseplay and get off the playground, but I was bored, and he likes to follow the rules.

My best shot of the week was this one, I just love the "fake" smile of my eight year old. She's such a ham. She also told me she'd never forgive me if I blogged this picture, so don't tell her I did it, okay?


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Give me your best shot...

My best shot this week goes along with my Wordful Wednesday post. In addition to our cardboard canoes, the kids played a few games like "three legged race" and "water balloon toss". My son has a "history" with things like this - meaning the last "toss" game he played a few weeks ago ended up with him being covered head to belly button in rotten pheasant egg yolk. Yeah. Nasty. I warned his partner - don't get your hopes up.

They got second place thanks to some fantastic dives like this:

Not bad for a couple of 15 year old knuckleheads!

Give me your best shot on Photostory Friday - an ode to the cat

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

My best shot of the week definitely required a story to go with it FOR SURE! The first thing people say about our cat when they see her is "holy cow, that is a FAT cat." You have no idea. Lets just say she weights approximately half of what my almost nine year old weighs. Really.

My 12 year old daughter, a self proclaimed poet, has written two beautiful poems this week about our cat and I just had to share them, they were just that good! By the way, thanks to our cat eating dog, the cat isn't allowed to go outside without a leash, and despite the look on her face, she loves the trampoline. Good times, I tell ya!

I have a fat cat and she's not too slim
Cause she can't stop eating and her weight needs a trim
If she stepped on our scale, it would probably break
And if the cat popped, we'd have a calico lake.

To make her go on a diet, we really do try
We all know we love her, we just don't know why
With the hair that she shed, you could make a large wig
This is the story of our calico pig.


An ode to my cat
You are getting fat
Cause you eat all in sight
Except for a rat.
I think soon you might pop
Though it's so sad to say
That someone will clean up your pieces one day.
You beg and you beg can I please go outside
Cause you just can't escape, cause many times you tried
You puke on our floor
And you wait by the door
And when your done with your food
You always want more
I love you my fat, barfing, shedding cat
But please my dear cat, you are getting too fat!

Give me your best shot on Photostory Friday

I couldn't pick just one best shot this week, there were so many, so you get my best five (or six - I obviously can't count)...

We stowed away in the husbands company car for a night away from home this week. Between swims in the hotel pool, which ruined my favorite toe ring (the sterling silver one I've worn for three years straight and then broke when I tried to take it off to "polish" it) and bleached the middle child's swim suit, we went to see some water of a different variety, the fast moving, majestic kind.



Shoshone Falls - which is actually taller than Niagra Falls... and of course, way cooler, cuz it's like less that three hours away from me... unlike Niagra Falls.



I don't know the name of this one, we referred to it as "yucky water that runs in ditch next to hotel and falls over cliff to Snake River waterfall". It was quite kewl. It's not every year this spot has any water dripping over it, but thanks to the massive, and I mean MASSIVE amounts of rainfall we've had this spring, it was running at full speed.



The same waterfall from down below... you can hike behind it, too, which we would have done but we were starving and well, we have our priorities.



The Twin Falls bridge spanning the Snake River... I think this is the bridge that one of my friends says she climbed across underneath or something like that. Yeah, whatever. I'll believe that one when I see it. It's bigger than it looks.



Getting away is always fun. Returning home is just as fun. Especially when you have an 8 year old that is just not the funnest person to go anywhere with. I know, hard to believe this innocent angelic child is uncooperative - trust me - she's the queen of uncooperative.




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