week 20 in pictures

sunday:

our friends, kat and cole, and their boys came for a visit on sunday. the kids played, kat and I chatted, cole and dave went for a long bike ride around the lake. they’re both training for STP in july.

monday:

typical micah – taking a break from his trains to play some mario kart.

tuesday:

with the weather nice, our indoor cat is just dying to get outside. he crouches by the slider, waiting for an opportunity to escape. so one day, I put his harness on him and took him out to spend some time in the back yard. I looped the end of the leash over one of the knobs on the climber and let him be.

wednesday:

sophie’s 15th birthday! FIFTEEN! holy cow, that is old for a dog. especially a lab. she had a vet appointment that day, for a check up and to see what was going on with this cough she’s been having. unfortunately, the news on that wasn’t great.

thursday:

layla has been desperate to make a water slide. you know how it is around here. as soon as the sun comes out, people strip down to their bare nothings and decide it’s summer. it was 65* out, and the kids were sporting swimsuits and wanting to play in the frigid hose water. shane helped her rig up this little scenario. honestly, I was skeptical. I didn’t think it would work. but it did, and they had SO much fun. they didn’t freeze either.

friday:

we knew this was going to be the last nice day, so we spent all day outside. after more splashing and sliding, these two took a page out of my book and just enjoyed the warmth. I think they were still all of about 5 seconds – just long enough for me to take this picture.

saturday:

old dog – lots of pills. in addition to the two pills she was taking before, we’ve now added two more. the glucosamine is to help her stiff joints, the proin is for old lady bladder control, and now we’ve added prednisone and a cough suppressant. the bad news was that xrays show a mass, likely a tumor, likely something like lymphoma, in her chest which is causing the coughing. BUT, given that she’s healthy and happy in all other ways, we decided that we’d do a non-invasive, non-traumatic treatment option. the prednisone can help to shrink the tumor for a time, make her more comfortable, and give her a little more time with us. ugh. it’s so sad to think of losing her, but I knew this day would come… I’ve just been dreading it for the last 15 years. at any rate, she seems to be reacting well, and we’ll just see how it goes.

that’s our week!

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playgroup aftermath

we had playgroup here today. lots of fun, lots of MOMS, lots of kids, lots of mess! micah got up this morning before 6 and powered right on through until everyone left at 3. and then at… we had this: sleepy guy. we had to go pick up shane from the y, so i put him in the car and he napped until we were almost back home. a perfect little nap!

a tribute to layla

i love my daughter. i really do. if i had only 3 words with which to describe her, it would be “full of life”. and she really, really is. she is someone who wants to experience all that life has to offer. i love the age she is too. her excitement about things is always contagious and her ideas hilarious and creative. she’s one of those kids who can’t just paint the paper, and whatever the rules for the game happen to be, they’re too boring and she’s going to play it her own way, darnit! there are a few things that come with this fabulous age, however, that i could easily do without. the screaming fit she had today, for example, over a graham cracker. she had the intention of giving it to micah, and broke it in half, even though, the whole time she was doing it, i was telling her NOT to give one to micah because he was having his lunch. i...

THAT’S NOT FOOD!

my friend, stephanie , has inspired me with her most recent post. apparently this was a topic on oprah today, i don’t watch her show, but it’s a good topic. my comment on her post (which is great – read it. the post, not my comment.), was quickly turning into a post of it’s own, so i decided to continue my vent here. it probably won’t be as eloquent as hers, but i’m climbing up on the soapbox she just got off of. we eat CRAP! LOTS and LOTS of CRAP!!! as a nation, it astounds me how much non-food we consume. i’ve wondered about this for a long time, but it used to be inspired from an environmental standpoint rather than a nutritional standpoint. i wondered about all the garbage we throw out. it bothered me that you couldn’t go to the store and buy granola bars without also buying a box and 6 wrappers, that would then be thrown away. i wondered why, every time you buy salad dressing or ketchup, you have to buy a new bottle, which would then be thrown away. i wondered why, every tim...

i love bees!

so, i took pictures for this post yesterday and then, upon checking some other favorite blogs, i discovered this on angie’s blog. she totally beat me to it! oh well, i guess it’s a common thing right now. but not to be outdone, here is my post: the bees are just crazy right now. especially on the raspberries, which makes me super duper happy because it means we’ll have a TON of wonderful raspberries this year! as you can see, we have a LOT of them… my patch keeps on growing! and the whole thing is literally alive with bees. you can watch it and it’s constantly moving and buzzing… just a whir of activity! it’s really something to see! i just love bumblebees! i always say i want them for pets. maybe it’s because they’re so fuzzy! i could watch them for hours. my rhodies are finally blooming! i love that purple one.

sourdough – installment 2!

well, i guess i did it right! today was day 4 since i made my starter. it had bubbled, grown, shrunk, and bubbled some more and was starting to smell more like wine than yeast. my experienced sourdough-making friend angie assured me that this meant that it had ‘soured’ and i could now use it. so i did. i decided to use my bread machine to do the mixing and kneading for me, but i wanted to bake it in the oven. i used the recipe for sourdough in my bread machine instruction book, and then used the baking instructions in a cookbook i have. at any rate, we have success!!! i was afraid they were a little too done, but actually, the bread and even the crust is still soft, even though it looks kind of dark. we dove right in and holy yumness! i think it could be a little more ‘sour’, so i’m going to leave my replenished starter out a day or two before i ‘put it to sleep’ in the fridge. but as it was, it was wonderful. i tried to take a picture of shane enjoying it, because his piece was big...

rachel's continued ramblings

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