west seattle

west seattle is one of my favorite places in the world. especially alki and lincoln park. these are places my mom always went to when she was a kid, growing up there, and she took me there all the time as far back as I can remember. so many birthdays and family reunions and fun gatherings happened at those two places. now, I try to take my kids there when I can, which usually winds up only being about once a year, and always in the summer.

this year, we really cut it close, and I insisted we go on sunday, after church, before school started and/or we lost the good weather.

it was a totally great day, and we realized later that we should have brought swimsuits.

we started off with lunch at spud.

the alki spud is not the original, but it’s my favorite. it’s upstairs dining room, looking out over the beach is my favorite place to sit, but layla was having a major fit about the fact that it smelled like fish, and was not getting over it, so we decided to grab a table outside.

there is nothing even remotely nutritionally redeeming about this lunch. but it is deep-fried bliss in a cardboard tray, soggy with garlic malt vinegar. oh my. seriously, best. food. ever.

after we finished our gluttony, we wandered across the street to hang on the beach for awhile.

the boys practiced their rock-skipping skills.

layla built a sand cave out of a paper cup.

and then we headed to lincoln park. the playground there has this awesome zipline swing. shane helped the littles get on it and launched them.

you seriously go flying when it hits the tire-stopper at the end. it’s nerve-wracking for a mom to watch, helplessly hoping your kid is holding on tight enough. but it is SO awesome.

and then it was time to head down to the beach and begin the traditional trek down the beach, attempting to walk only on the drift wood.

not that micah cared about that challenge… he was happy to continue throwing as many rocks as far into the water as he could manage.

seriously, gorgeous view.

it’s always fun to watch the ferries come and go from the dock.

and then… they got wet. layla wanted to “wade”. there is no such thing as just putting her feet in for that child. within 5 minutes, she was soaked to the chest. yes, swimsuits (and/or towels, and/or a change of clothes) would have been a good idea.

we headed back before dinner, mostly because of our two very wet children, who rode home in their wet underwear, and nothing else.

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tater tot casserole recipe

i realized i forgot to post this last week when we had it. i actually like it a little better than the hash brown one, but both are good. it’s VERY similar. once again, this is something i’ve made so many times that i just kind of wing it now, although i do have the recipe that kate sent to me after she made it for my family when micah was born. i like to keep the recipe because it has some little ‘britishisms’ throughout, just like kate! ;-) who, by the way, rocks, having called to check up on me the other evening when she saw that the power in our area was out AGAIN! thanks kate, smooch smooch! but now i’m getting distracted… big surprise. here goes. you will need: 1 lb or so ground beef (or ground turkey) 1 chopped onion a bunch of veggies (kate’s recipe calls for a ‘tin’ of mixed veggies, but i use fresh carrots & celery if i’ve got’em, frozen beans, peas, corn, whatever). maybe 2-3 cups. 1 can (or tin) of cream of something soup (i use celery usually

someone googled this stuff and found me!

these are as is... spelling errors and all. how to use a bathroom scale seriously? how hard is it? if you want step by step instructions, read this . washing machine doesn't empty bummer dude rachel's restroom i seem to remember someone predicting, when i was in high school, that i would go into the portable restroom business some day... "locks of love" site:blogspot.com because i'm totally the authority on that sort of thing. my hair is still in a ziplock bag waiting to be mailed. http://rambling-rachel.blogspot.com/ i think you typed this in the wrong place does 2 year old talk with imagination is there any other option? SLUDGE IN WORM BIN yummy. diapers to bed well, considering the other option... yes, please! imagination and 2 years old once again. 2 year olds do like to use their imaginations. loose change in my washing machine what priceless wisdom are you looking for here? how to get some? where did it come from? what to do with it? duh! rachel joe

“you should have your head examined!”

… i just did! yup, yesterday i had the thrilling experience of sitting in a hospital waiting room for 2 hours, followed by another in a trauma room. no, i don’t think i had suffered any sort of major trauma – i think that’s just what room they had left to stick me in. i mused about where we would go if they had to kick us out because a ‘real’ trauma situation arose. thankfully, we didn’t have to learn the answer to that. i guess i was a traumatic as it got during that window of time. backing up, i wound up in the hospital yesterday because micah threw some clothes on the ground. the night before i had been folding laundry in the living room. i had a couple of stacks of ‘hang up’ clothes that were draped over the baby gate in front of the fireplace. yes, it’s a christmas picture, but i knew i had it in my stash. at any rate, there’s the ugly baby gate that the clothes were hanging on. also notice the wood mantle above it that the nativity set is on.

bacon-potato chowder recipe

dave found this recipe at some point when we were living in ohio. he apparently had a hankering for some chowder of some kind. so I have no idea where the credit goes in this case. but we’ve been making it ever since, so it was definitely a winner! 1 lb. bacon cut in small pieces 1 cup chopped onions 4 cups diced potatoes 2 cups water 1 tsp salt (and some pepper) 2 cans cream of something soup (chicken or celery) 2 cups sour cream 3 cups milk **edited to add: apparently, dave says he adds a clove or two of garlic as well. chop them up with them up and add them with the onions.** in a big pot, cook bacon over medium heat. add onion and cook until tender. drain off grease. add water, potatoes, salt and pepper. cook 15 minutes. stir in soup, sour cream, and milk. cook until heated through. easy, but best to do all you’re chopping, dicing, and measuring ahead of time. if you like it thick, simmer a little longer… don’t make this if you are dairy intolerant or on a diet! lol. a

cat on a wet, shingled roof

so we have this cat, not our cat, that lives on our roof apparently. i guess it likes it up there. we discovered it up there a few weeks ago when the neighbors heard pathetic meowing one afternoon. after looking around all over, under cars and bushes, we finally spotted it up on the roof. assuming it was stuck, we tried to coax it down. dave finally climbed up on fence, and grabbed it when it came over for some lovin’. our neighbor teri, says it is a stray that the people who live behind her have ‘adopted’ (they feed it). so it was down, and it went on it’s way. a couple mornings ago, shane went out to scoop the poop, and discovered the cat was back on our roof. so, being a 10 year old boy who likes cats and climbing on things, he shimmied himself up on the fence and attempted to coax the cat down. it’s a very friendly cat and would totally come over to him and rub around him and let him pet it and and was purring like crazy. but he couldn’t manage to grab it. i assured him that it w

rachel's continued ramblings

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