What I've Been Up To!

potatoes ready for the grill, garnished with fresh herbs.

The last week has been extremely full for me. Well, full for our entire family. Summer has hit head on and we've rushed right into it. I've looked at my calendar and at least one, if not all of us have something going on every night or every day through the beginning of August. Mondays and Wednesdays Kat has soccer practice and Wednesdays we have youth group. Tuesdays and Thursdays either in the morning or evening she has dance practice (she's in a dance for our youth conference). Fridays are our worship nights at the church. Throw in there two soccer camps and about 5 soccer tournaments, a week long fundraiser (beginning Sunday, so I'll be scarce in bloggy land), and a Youth Conference, and there goes summer!! Our busy week began last Friday. We took Nan to play an indoor soccer session and then left to take Kat to game #1 of her weekend tournament in West Linn, Oregon (about 45 minutes from our house). We were hit with a deluge of rain as we left the indoor arena. It seemed to take us forever to get to the tournament due to traffic and standing water on the highway. We made it and the girls tied their first game 0-0. Saturday morning we headed downtown for a pancake breakfast at our local Lions Club. Our town was celebrating it's Planter's Day Celebration. After the breakfast hubby took the girls to meet the "float" they were to be riding on for our churches VBS. Kat had to jump off the float when she got to us because we had to jet out for game #2. She realized that she left her shin guards at home (thankfully before we had left town, but a bit frustrating). They lost game #2 4-3. We headed back home and met up with Nan who had been with friends. We left the girls in town with their grandma and grandpa and I picked them up around 7:15 and took them back to the celebration in town to watch a Colgate Country Showdown (singing contest). It was back home to bed after that.

the float for our VBS..my girls helped make it.

Sunday morning was church and then back down to for the final game of the tournament. The girls won that game and took second place overall. We were so proud of them. We went to dinner at Olive garden, then home to relax and hang out. Whew, did that wear us out. Monday was a day to work outside. Hubby and Nan re-seeded grass while I cleaned inside (Kat was babysitting). I went out to help finish up the spreading of peat moss over the grass seed. Hubby then got out the chain saw and in the course of two days we trimmed about 50 fir trees. Hubby cut, while Nan, Kat and I hauled and burned branches. Boy did we have a massive pile of burning branches. It was so hot I realized that there is no way I could ever be a firefighter. Our trees look so much nicer now. I also spent about 4 hours weeding the garden over the last few days. It's doing fine but I think it needs some fertilizer. I'm thinking about buying some miracle grow or something to help it along. Any suggestions?

the top two pictures show the trees after we trimmed them. The bottom picture shows the garden and the trees before trimming.

I almost forgot. There is a company that has been installing new power poles and lines along our road for the last 3 weeks. Monday a company helicopter came and flew over the lines, then it came back and for quite awhile hovered just at treetop height dragging the power lines. It was fascinating to watch. They had to warn the neighbors they were coming because they didn't want their horses to become frightened (which they did but the neighbors were home to calm them...to which I was grateful)

they flew even lower than this picture. Low enough that the trees were moving.

So, life has been busy but good. Crazy, yet normal for us. I'm trying to find little times to plan some fun things with the girls. No trips for us this year. As I said above, we are running a fireworks stand for the next week, so after Saturday, I probably will not be around in bloggy land unless I get up early (which is a possibility). With Joy UNquenchable,