Well, we have a quiet house

Everyone is gone and it is very quiet, but I had a lot to catch up on. I needed a clean house and clean laundry to be able to read tomorrow w/o worrying about feeling guilty. I will post the pics from the Leslie visit, on Sunday. My biggest fear is my Harry book won't come tomorrow. I haven't worried about anything this much for a long time!! Well, it is late, I am sooooo excited for tomorrow, and am so jealous of those of you who already have your book now. Rebecca, Darin, and Megan are in line now I am sure. I will probably be staring at the door all day until the ups truck comes. Well, I am signing off until Sunday!!!!

The new beach house

I am still getting used to how these posts work. I wanted these pictures of the house to be after the post below it. I posted a question of how to move the posts and Brenly told me how to change the order of the posts, you just go to post options at the bottom of the edit posts window and click on Post Option. Then you change the date and time and it will move your post to the position you want!!! Cool huh?!

Bought Harry Potter tickets for Friday today!!!!!!

Make sure to scroll down to Ruby!!!

We Closed on the New Vacation Rental!!!

Today we finally closed on our new Oceanfront Vacation Rental. It is two miles south of the bridge. It is about the same size as our other one. The main living area on this one is upstairs. Can't wait for you all to see it!!

Week with Ruby!

We had a great time with Ruby as you can tell, we baked Williams Sonoma Bug Cakes, we sewed the cute skirt and purse you see, we watered flowers and vegies, we sang, read books, we went out to the goats at least twice a day, we watched Bellflower Bunnies dvd's, ate "pampcakes", played on the beach, and talked and laughed a lot. It was a wonderful time! I have to admit, I am not as capable as I was when I had six kids at home. I suppose its for many reasons, mostly I didn't play all day with my own kids. But maybe 50yrs old has something to do with it also!! I think my patience is greater, and my perspective is different. I realize, how little they are. Also as Lizzie would say "you want to be the favorite". The human in me is not mature enough to be one of the favorites. :-)

Comment on Amy's Observation about Treats

I just laughed and laughed when I read Amy's assessment on treats. We didn't have ice cream because we would eat it up so fast. 8 people eat a half gallon of ice ream in one sitting. Plus when I first got married I realized baking from scratch was cheaper most of the time. Then after I got into nutrition I realized homemade was healthier. When you guys were little or actually before you came Amy, we did have ice cream on a regular basis, I would make fudge sauce and dad and I would be pigs. Then when I started having a weight problem (when I was pregnant with Amy), I just bought ice cream when the missionaries came. Cookies were made less frequently also. When I was young and thin, we had cookies or some kind of treat on a daily basis. Your dad has forgotten that of course. He forgot the days when everything wasn't chocolate. We used to have all different kinds of treats. Cakes, pies, cookies, pudding, caramel popcorn, etc. ( I should show your dad the cookbooks and he would see how dirty they are on all the different treat pages!!) Then when you girls and Jake got old enough to bake you started the all chocolate treats, except when Jake made oatmeal or peanut butter cookies. I quit baking because I wanted you guys to learn to cook. Treats are a good way to encourage that. I love ice cream, so for me that is the kiss of death if it is in my freezer. Also when Costco came along it was a lot cheaper to buy the chocolate chips. Plus homemade cookies do cost less than store bought when you consider the quantity of the cookies. For me homemade ones are better also because I can make how many I want around, and then freeze the dough. So you see it was a mostly a matter of health and weight, not so much a matter of money. Although if I am honest, money will always play a role with cookies. Silly I know!!!!

Ruby's here!

We have Ruby with us!! It is exhausting, but I love having grandkids with us. We mostly played all day-peoples, cooking (pretend) on the beach, burying each other, etc. We made "pampcakes", watched too many videos, petted the goats twice, and tried to pick raspberries. Whew, no wonder I am tired. Plus I have had a migraine all day. I finally took an expired imitrex. I hope it works. Well, I am exhausted, but have had 6 Excedrin today. I hope I can go to sleep, I haven't had much sleep lately-hence part of the reason for the headache. Will send pics as soon as I get my camera lens cleaned. When Steve went fishing, his buddy put his very dirty finger on the lens. It is so bad I am afraid to clean it myself. So no pics until I can go to Eugene to a reparable camera store. :-( Well, love you all!!! Happy 4th!!!!
mom

Long day of Breaking the Sabbath

It took me about 7 hours to freeze all the tuna. I figure it gave us 84 meals. That is including some we gave away today. I froze 58 meals in steaks for us, and there is about12-13 meals left in scraps. I may cut it up in small pieces and freeze it, or can it tomorrow. The problem is I don't have a canner. By the time I go up to Newport (that's if Newport has one) and get back to can it a good share of the day will be gone. I'm too tired to think right now.

I got to talk to Rebecca and Eddie for part of the time I was vacuum packing. I learned all about the dangers of the coast guard in Alaska, watched some BYU channel, watched the end of Remember the Titans, and a small portion of diamond trucking from the North or South Pole. You can learn a lot when you are vacuum packing! Ha Ha!

Well, I love you all!! Church was wonderful, I am so grateful for the gospel. I can't imagine life without it. I hadn't born my testimony in about 3 months for odd reasons. I needed that today, and got the chance. I was reminded of the importance of bearing your testimony. I am grateful to be a mother and wife. I talked to Eddie tonight and it is wonderful to have loving siblings. Well, I am signing off. Hope you all have a great day today!!