Highlights - 2nd half of August

What I enjoyed the last two weeks:

• Running away to Spokane overnight for spa, movie, craft day with Jo, Lisa, and Mom. Great spending time with the girls. Happy 50th Jo!
• Day of Crafts and Sewing at Cyndy's - always a great time! Followed up with pizza and games, fun!
• Happy anniversary to us! 17 years - amazing. Palisade was a yummy treat.
• Catching up on some movie rentals (Waitress, Penelope) and current flicks (had to see Mamma Mia! on my own, since everybody else saw it when I wasn't around).

Lowlight: Sleep, how I miss it. Wish our little bug would sleep more, so I could too. Sigh.

This is an unpaid political announcement

Okay, I have a major insecurity about speaking my mind in public. You know that about me. You also probably know where I stand, whether or not I speak up in front of others. But this one time, I just gotta…it’s too important. I woke up this morning crafting the perfect post in my head. This isn’t it (dreams are like that), but it’s what I need to say.

It’s time for a change.

We’ve had enough of the cowboy mentality in our foreign policy. We don’t need a maverick, we need a leader. We need someone we can be proud of standing on the world stage, someone the rest of the world can respect, someone who can get people talking, find commonality, really listen and find solutions, not just wield a big stick. It’s time to stop bullying the world, let’s try leadership instead.

We’ve had enough of pretending that money to the top will help folks on the bottom. Get real. How do we not have healthcare coverage for everyone in our country? Our country can afford it – it’s the individuals who can’t. Use government to do what government is for! Creating a safety net for people. Taking care of our people when they need it. Not just standing by and consigning them to poverty, simply because they have the bad luck to get cancer.

We’ve had enough of the blue/red bickering. How about we pull out the purple crayon for a while? Let’s see what we could do if we actually worked together. What’s wrong with a little hope?

C’mon America, say it with me: Yes We Can!

Obama ‘08

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I’m almost ready to volunteer to cold call folks in other parts of the country to try and spread the hope. Note the almost – I’d pretty much rather get teeth pulled or endure major surgery than call a stranger out of the blue & try and convince them of something. Not to mention knocking on doors? Yikes. Maybe I can hand out buttons instead.

(My lame attempt at a political speech is now over. You may now go back to your regular lives. But please, think carefully in November about what you really need from a leader.)

Highlights - early August

I figure since I've been silent for a while, I'd better make up for by covering more than just this week for Pops' "post the highlights" challenge. So, highlights for the past few weeks:

• Nana visiting - Max so enjoyed having Nana read to him at night and play in his "shuttle" all afternoon. Great visit.
  
• Finishing the appliques for my circle quilt. In progress for oh, about 2 years now, and I can finally move onto step 4, start sewing blocks to each other. (Step 1 was cut lots & lots of trianges & circles, step 2 was piece the triangles onto squares, step 3 was hand stitch the circles onto the squares.) Step 3, though it took a rather long time (since it would sit for months), was very restful and satisfying.
  
• Unpacking 3 huge boxes for my b-day present. Some additional pieces for our Denby Boston plates from Replacements, since it's a discontinued pattern. Now I have a gravy boat!
  
• Selling the bunk bed and getting real cash money for it, plus Colin taking a load o' baby stuff to Eastside Baby Corner to donate. Buh-bye!

Lunch - Bento style

About a year ago, I saw cute Bento-style lunches for kids on the Kid Eats Flickr pool and they looked like so much fun! Then I wandered across Lunchinabox and CookingCute and an obsession started to form. Must do bento lunches!

Online shopping from Ichiban Kan USA plus a couple of eBay orders from Japan, and I had the equipment I needed.

I now present to you...Max's lunches for summer camp, Bento style:

Ham & cheese skewers, corn muffins, apples, and strawberries.
Dinosaur PB&J, cheesy crackers, cherries, raisins, carrots, & snap peas.
Bologna rolls, cheese stick, crackers, carrots, snap peas, cherries, granola bar, raisins.
Chicken salad, crackers, canned green beans, cherries, snap peas, raisins.
Tillamook cheddar hearts, hot dog octopusses, ketchup, crackers, cherries, carrots, snap peas, raisins.
More hotdog octopusses (octopii?), ketchup, bun, cherries.

I've also been doing my own lunches and snacks, when I have appropriate leftovers or did weekend shopping, in the Happy Orange/Blue Balloon and plain clear bento sets that Colin got me from the local Japanese dollar store, Daiso. He's an enabler :-). Better stop before it takes over the house!

For the birds?

Max and I have been enjoying a new bird feeder we put up, watching the birdies come munch and looking up which ones we've seen in a bird book from the library.

We've had Stellar's Jays, Goldfinches (I swear, I never saw them around before I put up the feeder even though they're our state bird!), Black-Capped Chickadees (I knew we had those - chick-a-dee-dee-dee!), Dark-Eyed Junkos, regular-old Robins, a Rufus or Spotted Towhee, and some good old sparrows. We even drew a hummingbird one day although he looked confused that the feeder didn't have anything he liked. Not sure what kind of hummingbird - they're hard to get a look at. Anyway, it's been fun. One week, I started to notice that the bird feed (shelled sunflower seeds, no mess!) was disappearing rather more quickly than before. A day later, I found out why.



(Action shot - through a window - kinda fuzzy sorry.)
Hey Mr. Squirrel, that's not there for you! Guess we'll have to investigate and deploy some anti-squirrel measures.

Why homemade frosting is better than frosting from a can

Colin's b-day, he got a yummy yellow bowl cake, with input on the decoration from Max. Cheated and used canned frosting.


Later that evening, it looked like this. 'Nough said.

But we did enjoy his new game.

Beach time with the R-clan

I always love a trip to Cannon Beach, OR, and what's more fun than hanging with the whole Robertson clan? Not much!

There's parties for hosting (happy 70th Pops!), Marshmallows for roasting...

Double-decker kite flying with Dad:

Crazy cold & windy family photos:

Just plain crazy family photos:

And good, clean fun with some cousins:

Ah, the beach. Nothing like it.