B's graduation

This was in the spring, but the photos are sweet and still worth sharing...

First, G had a little graduation of her own

 And then everyone rolled out of town and over to Bellingham for B's big day.

Love, J

I got me some raised beds

Me, in March, "Boy, keeping the paths in the garden cleared each summer is pretty back-breaking.  I wish we could lay stones or something to keep the weeds down."

Some internet searching... then, "I guess if we were going to do that, what would really look great is if we had raised beds too."

I had impossible material criteria, such as:
- Zero maintenance
- Recycled
- Pretty
- Cheap.  Ideally, free.

And I'll be damned if the internet didn't come through, with an idea to build walls and dig in paths made of "urbanite," or broken up hunks of concrete.

I posted a "wanted" ad on Craigslist for free, busted up concrete.  It took longer than I'd hoped, and we had a few false starts, but then a woman in Post Falls emailed me and said she had a 400 ft. wall made of cinder blocks that she wanted gone, and if we could come haul them away, they were ours.

 So we did (with, as usual, DIL and little brother's great assistance).  And the blocks were BEAUTIFUL.

 And a little while later, I got another email.  This time from a man who had a lot of concrete he wanted to get rid of.  Not only that, he was able to deliver it to us.  Not only THAT, but he also had some really nice dirt to unload, and he was happy to haul that to us as well, and we could use it to fill our new beds.

This has nothing to do with the garden, but aren't they cute?

 Here is where I'm super glad I was not in charge of this project.  It didn't occur to me that leveling and measuring and all that would be such a big deal.  But under DIL's advice, the hubs was meticulous about the whole thing.  And I cringe when I think of how sloppy it would look if I'd had my way and just slapped it all together.

We had a moose in our yard for a day.  It was exciting.

 Holy cow, did the hubs WORK on this thing this summer.  My job was to chip the old mortar off the cinder blocks, haul them to him, keep the weeds down, and bring him iced tea.  His job was everything else, and it was totally backbreaking and hot and TOOK FOREVER, and he's not much of a sun guy in the first place.  Total trouper.

Also, little brother was here pretty much every week, just to hang out, but really to help lots and lots and lots.
 

 And enjoy rainbows.

 We've got one more bed and a few more paths to do next spring, but it's over halfway done and it looks amazing.  The skill and strength of these guys impresses me to no end.

Love, J

Hubs enters his next decade

This guy turned 30.  We gathered; we ate; we sang.  At the end of the day, I don't think he felt TOO old.  Also, it's hard to take good photos inside of a bar.

Love, J

11.7.13

River's Wish took in a ton more horses this summer, just after their benefit auction.  By the time we got up to visit them all, most were pretty recovered nutrition-wise, and the little babies had grown up a bit, but not so much that they weren't still obviously pint-sized.

Horses freak me out a little, but clumsy little baby horses?  Yes please.

And that one of G with Bryce the donkey is classic because of Denzy the goat's photobomb.  That guy is such a lurker, and is in the background of hundreds of photos on our laptop.

Love, J

10.16.13

If only this party were real, it would be amazing.

Wait but Why is a really good blog.  This post is particularly interesting.

This dog enjoys playing in leaves.  Like, a lot.

Columbus was a tool, so why do we have a holiday named after him?

They can be a little bit slow, but The Civil Wars make great music.  Good as background music on cold nights.  I especially like this one.  (But their original stuff's good too.)

Kids having fun at their parents' expense.  Yes.

I'm glad Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake agree with my stance that hashtags are ridiculous.  We can still be friends.

Why have a baby when a dragon is so much more fun?

Note: Remember some of these ideas for posing with any celebrities you may someday encounter.

And finally, Jaime Oliver, you haven't tasted real poverty.  Cut out the tutting.  (And as soon as I can be sure I'm using it right, "tutting" is becoming a fixture in my vocabulary.)

We are trucking along.  Sweet Sarah rabbit passed away from a nasty fast bout of stasis in September, and it's been a sad fall without her.  She was tirelessly patient with my snuggles (even though she generally preferred to be left alone), and such a mellow, gentle girl.  Now it's just Freya, me, and all our boys.

The hubs and his little brother made great progress on building the giant garden over the past month or so.  There will still be some left to finish in the spring, but not much.  It looks as amazing as my wildest dreams, and I'm pretty excited to work in it next year.

New raised beds & paths : Yards :: The remodeled bathroom : Bathrooms

We did grape juice last weekend and got 36 quarts, and didn't even do all the grapes we had.  It's beautiful, dark purple almost black, and very grapey.

We're also redoing the living room right now, and have (hopefully) less than a week of construction left.  Apparently we like to do home improvement projects in the fall.  I guess things are too busy in the summer and spring, and in winter I'm not willing to open up the house and make it anything less than as cozy as possible.

And that's what's going on with us.  Pictures to follow, eventually, someday.  Probably.

Love, J

8.22.13

Okay, so this happened a couple months ago, and I'm way behind, but... Wow.  Where the heck did Rep. Tammy Duckworth come from?!  She's amazing.  I hope (and would kind of be willing to bet) she works her way up to a national office.  

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Her Wikipedia page is here.

Love, J

Post edit:  Erhg, the video link's not working right now.  Go to YouTube and search "Tammy Duckworth IRS contractor," and pick the longest video you can find, it's worth the eight or so minutes, trust me.

7.27.13

crash

We are so tired.  We're at the end of two exhausting weeks of something-huge-to-do-every-day.  Some of it was just for fun, some of it was just work, and a lot of it was a mix of the two.  In just the last 14 days, we've:

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Visited a few times with the "other" Jess, and finally met gorgeous Homegirl. 

Been out to River's Wish about a million times as we prepped for, threw, and then cleaned up after a very huge, very successful auction fundraiser. 

Kind of kept up with the garden.

Saw two Old Bear Mountain shows in one night, and were treated with my lovely friend Lauren's company for the night.  

 Went to RW a few more times.

Cashed in an Indian's game box seat that we won as a family at an auction at Step-Dad's church this spring.

Got to see some of but not nearly enough of our family at various get-togethers.

Celebrated our tenth anniversary and rocked it like a hurricane at karaoke night on a mini-trip to visit the sisters.  And again, Ms. Lauren joined in, both for the evening and for a wicked Sublime duet with yours truly which I must say, nearly brought the house down.  KT, B and I worked our way through lots of early 90's country - Reba, The Judds, and some Garth.  (Because it's always more fun to sing songs you don't even need the prompter for.)

Fun fact: The Hubs LOOOVES karaoke.  It makes him feel like a rockstar and he gets so into it, it's really fun to watch.

Love, J