Andie's Apron

I wanted to show you the apron I made for Andie's birthday.

It didn't cost me anything! I was able to make it from fabric pieces and scraps that I already had at home.

I bought her a $.99 box of brownie mix to go with the apron.

Haha - her card cost more than her gift! But I think she'll like it.

Busy Day

Yesterday was crazy-busy.

We had the annual Veterans Assembly in the morning.

Normal teaching / literacy coaching duties during the day (ie: busy, always).

Taught Literacy Council about brain research on boy brains from 3:30-4:30.

Got home around 5:00.

Mark had to go help a handicapped ward member change out a plug plate.

Ate dinner and changed into church clothes and left the house at 6:00.

Michelle's wedding at 7:00.

Home a little after 9:00.

Whew!

Runaway Play Day

This coming Saturday is our monthly Play Day. Mark wants to really get away. The forecast is rainy here on the west side. Central Oregon is forecast for overcast, but no rain. We'll probably hop in the car at 3:15 Friday and head east. Stop where we feel like it. Explore and play on Saturday.

I've wanted to see the High Desert Museum in Bend for years. We're always in a hurry to get to or from Sparks Lake. Maybe this time we'll explore indoors.

Or there's Smith Rock State Park, also near Bend. It looks really cool. If the weather is good enough, it would be fun to explore that, too.

Of course, there are all those sweet little shops in Sisters, Oregon. Those are fun to wander around in.



Who knows what we'll do? Whatever it is, we won't be home Saturday morning. I'll give you a call when we get back in town. I love you!

Sweet Baby...

We had a family birthday party for David this evening. He requested his favorite dinner: roast beef, mashed potatoes, and homemade gravy. That's an easy menu, and I was happy to oblige. Holly made a delicious lemon/poppy seed cake with a warm lemon curd sauce for the frosting. Yum! I told Holly some stories about David's original "birth" day and when he was a little guy. Fun memories.

Oops - I forgot to make sure the flash was on, so some of the pictures are kind of yellow...

Ugh

Oh, my cold has hit with a vengeance today. Feeling really cruddy. I went to the doctor this afternoon. She listened to me breathe, and then had me take a 5-minute breathing treatment. It might have just been water vapor, or there might have been some medicine in it. I was too tired to ask. She said I don't have pneumonia. Now I have a new inhaler (asthma-type) to use every 6 hours for a week. I've gotten to this point before, and the inhaler helps. I don't have asthma on a regular basis, but I do have stress-induced asthma (germs = stress) every 3 or 4 years.

I would love to stay home tomorrow, but I'm scheduled to go to a conference in Portland. At least I can just sit and learn, and now have to worry about kids and my lit coach duties. I will be carpooling with 3 other teachers, so I won't even have to drive into Portland.

It's weird for me to be so sick - two times in four weeks. I almost never get sick. I'm either picking up germs from the grandkids in the house, or from my little nursery children at church. I'm pretty immune to teenage germs, but I'm going to have to build up stronger immunity to little-people germs.

Apple Pie!

We made an apple pie today - a yummy new recipe!

I first read about it on Sarah Maughan's blog, here. She has some really good pictures of making the pie, and how it turned out.

The actual recipe is here.

The thing that's different about it is this - instead of mixing sugar and flour with the apples, you just put the apples (only) in the crust. Then you put a lattice on top. THEN you make a caramel sauce, which you pour over the whole thing.

It's delicious, and it isn't as runny as apple pie usually is. Plus, the caramel makes a wonderful bit of crunchiness on the top crust...maybe you should make it for Dad's birthday next Saturday!

We made an extra one for me to take to Literacy Council on Tuesday...I'm going to try to lure more people to come with an email that says, "Eat apple pie and earn PSU credit." Haha!

Arora was a big help with the apples. We used one of those peeler-corer-slicer gizmos to prepare the apples. It made it much easier since we doubled the recipe and had 16 apples to peel and slice.

Princess and the Pea

These photos of Arora made me think of the old fairy tale. She loved sitting on her blanket "throne." She's playing with a game on her mom's cell phone.