Wednesday Morning Nature Blogging...

'Cause I just got nothin' today and I just took some new pictures at a place called Dismal Nitch, funny...but pretty. So I'm cheating today.

They said 59 degrees...they were wrong.

So Waldport this weekend was really nice, Friday the weather was pleasant and 55 like they said it was going to be...then Saturday got there and the Sun came out and it was more like 65 or 70 which was just what I asked for.

The girls had fun playing in the pools low tide left behind.



And I enjoyed the sun a little too!




We had a blast!

We made candles....

Tea cup candles...



Too be continued...

SOAP!

To be continued.....

Friday Morning Nature Blogging

Is going to a little early this week. I am taking my two daughters down to Waldport Oregon to spend the weekend with my Grandmother, Mother, Great Aunts, Aunts, Cousins, Cousins-in-Law, Second Cousins and various assorted associations of all the aforementioned womens.

We do it every year and this year I had no way of leaving my girls home and my Family absolutely would NOT let me out of it.

So in honor of the cold beach that I will be visiting (hopefully the weather forecast will change to 70 but for now I'm not holding my breath) I want to post something that looks warm and beautiful.

Enjoy your weekend everyone! I'll be back Sunday with lots of photo's of Beach, Babes and Bedazzled handmade goodness.

So I am off like a dirty skirt...

I am leaving fair Astoria O' Beach of my existence today for fair Waldport O' Beach of a far off nature.

Why you ask would I go from one beach to another when the other is 4 hours away? I am going to my annual all girls family craft retreat. I'll be blogging again today so you will get the explanation of that.

I'm going to go ahead and post my Friday Morning Nature Blogging early as I will not have access to a computer while I am away, the post is already written; all I have to do is hit publish and jet out the door so I am remiss to explain it all here now when later it will seem like "yeah, okay! we get it now shut up already!" so you'll just have to wait.

Hey here's a thought though, I live at the beach right? Why can't I talk my family into doing craft retreat closer to my house? why must I drive my ass four hours away to craft at the beach when I live at the beach?

Hmmm?
During crab festival?
Which I have never been able to attend due to craft retreat.
Hmmm, why?

This year I'm gonna work on them. There has got to be a better way. They have to see that there are places that are not four hours away that are still right on the beach. And were not even staying on the beach, more like a dunes length away. You can hear the Ocean but you have to climb the dune to see it.

Sigh, I'll shut up now.

At least I get to see some family I haven't seen since Christmas, so I guess it's worth it. Plus! I'll probably have lots of crafty things to blog about when I return on Sunday so SCORE!

Be prepared for handmade goodness coming SOON to a blog near you.

Sorry people's I tend to get nervous before a long drive...

And this spider is NOT in a cage...

It's in a candle...that USED to reside on my bedside table.

And when my dog knocked over my bedside table and all went crashing to the ground and my daughter picked it up and said "Look Mama, a dead spider" I looked in...decided she was right and put the candle back on the bedside table.

Next to my head.

Then later I reached over to switch on the lamp...and it moved...and so did my skin.

Unlike Miss Melanie's spider this one is Not in a cage, it was right. next. to. mah head. Where my mouth is. And my ears are.

It did not fly out of the candle when it hit the ground like you would expect either, no! It has built itself a nice little web in that candle and sealed itself in.

It's a poisonous spider by the way, in case you were wondering. It's the down side to living in the Pacific N.W. BIG HAIRY POISONOUS FUCKING SPIDERS THAT EAT YOUR FACE!

Bet you don't miss THAT bubblewench.

*UPDATE 7AM, THURSDAY*

The Evil King inspected the spider last night, determined it is NOT poisonous though he could not tell me what it was and decided it could STAY! he refuses to kill it or remove it.

Meet My Little Cutie

She gets to go see a play today in Portland, so we dressed her up and put my hat on her (now her hat and I'm sure you can see why) and OMG she knocked me right over with her cuteness!

Look at her,



isn't she a Doll Baby?

Thank You!

I want to thank all of you who commented on my post yesterday about the Bomb in the Middle school.

All of your thoughts and suggestions were very helpful and useful and I will be putting together a game plan to go over with my children in the event of...well anything.

After reading the news reports on this it turns out it WAS just some punk kid thinking he/she was the shit (I think he/she IS a shit) and pulling a really stupid prank in honor of the anniversary of the Columbine tragedy.

IN HONOR!

This world is going to hell...anyone who thinks that we don't need change is completely blind to the fact that it already has.

Thank you all again for your support.

A BOMB threat...at the MIDDLE school

AND the High school. I'm driving up the street past my daughters bus stop today and I see a school bus. It was almost noon so at first my mind said Kindergarten letting out...but then what's this?

Why that child looks an awful lot like MY child, well look...she's waiving at me, why THAT IS MY CHILD !

WTF?

They sent her home early. There was a bomb threat at the Astoria Middle school and High school. The last time this happened it was just some dumb kid trying to get out of going to school.

This is Astoria for Christ sakes. And just the other day I was posting about how worry free I was letting my kids walk up to their bus stop sans parental figure.

What do I do now? Do I shrug it off and let it go? Do I freak out and call the school back and demand that the culprit be made such a horrible example of that this NEVER happens again? Do I start walking my kids to the bus? Do I start taking them to school? Do I...I don't even know you know?

My kids are in grade school damn it! And while it didn't happen at my kids schools they thought it serious enough to shut down the entire district over it (rightly so).

*sigh*

Holy crap.

The Daily Astorian ran an article.

Well I was right, we made Fox 12 news.

The perfect cookie...

Okay I don't like to brag but I'm gonna...I can bake. Cooking eh, I'm alright. My food is edible, sometimes outstanding but my baking...I am the shit!

The key to the perfect cookie is the batter, and I mean BATTER not dough. It should make you wonder if you put in enough flour. However put it in the fridge for a little while and it should firm up a bit.

ALSO the chocolate chips, they need to be good chocolate...and people...just 'cause Nestle says their the best doesn't mean they are. Get the good stuff it's only a dollar more.

The vanilla, it HAS TO BE REAL! This is also why you need to use good chocolate.

Behold...



A perfect chocolate chip cookie.

So...I was tagged and I missed it

So here we go.

Over at Auntie's Place, who sadly has decided to stop blogging, Auntie says she wants to know more about me and since she says she will still be reading and she is one of my newly found local blogs here go's.

I was born in Portland Oregon in 1973 to a very sweet 17 year old Mother and a 21 year old redneck Father.

I grew up in Southeast Portland and promptly left that shit hole of a suburb as soon as humanly possible...maybe a bit too soon for my Mom though, as I was only 17. But then again she had me at that age...I only had me.

I went to Marshall High School (recently I've been peeking at some old classmates at classmates.com...that's a trip)

I have been working in Office's since I was 19 and seriously needed a career change as mine at the time was seedy and humiliating.

I once lived all by my self in a one bedroom apartment with a stereo, no t.v. (that was awesome) an open bottle of Chardonnay in the fridge at all times and a cat...I highly recommend this. Every woman should live by herself for a least a little while, it was the most fun I ever had.

I've lived in Washington and Colorado as well as Oregon but I always come back, Oregon is my home.

Until I got to Astoria I had never lived anywhere I could stay. I love it here, enough to keep me from moving back to Portland...for now.

I have two daughters who are soon to be 12 and 9...I have been with their Father whom I have never married since High School, oh like almost 18 years now.

I was once the Office manager of a local furniture store here in Astoria that closed down (thank the gods) back in October of 2006, that might have been my worst job ever and I once was the rat at Chuck E Cheeses so you do the math.

I moved to Astoria back in 2003 after my life grenaded on me. I lost my job, all my income, my apartment, my dignity all in the span of a week. I had to move in with my Mother-in-Law who was NOT WELL in the head at the time due to some inappropriate drug use. That situation went from bad to worse and resulted in some jail time and a restraining order.

Luckily it was tax time...and they owed me...so with $1000 in my pocket I opened the paper while at MY Mother's house and the first ad for an Apartment I saw was one for the Riverines (Now Bayshore Apartments on Youngs Bay) they only wanted $390 for a two bedroom (later I found out why) and my Man and I told My mom we were going out to find place to live (she thought near her) that we'd be back that afternoon. We drove to Astoria and rented the apartment.

Two weeks later I got a job at the furniture store and two months later I moved into the house I still rent now. It has a beautiful view of the river that I incessantly post pictures with which to bore you all here. My kids are happy and stable and structured. They walk themselves up to their bus stop everyday with little worry on my part.

It was the best spur of the moment decision I ever made and I don't regret it or look back for a second. I may be broke but I'm happy, I might not have anything to do but I live at the beach so I can't even say that really...there's always something to do here, it's beautiful...even when it rains.

Soon I plan on going back to school, I hear there's a need for medical transcriptionists here in Fair Astoria and with a quick look at my job market here I don't have to worry about getting a job anytime soon...cause there aren't any. Plus I can take the class online I'm told and since I spend a fair amount of time at the computer anyway I might as well make it productive.

Thanks for the Tag Auntie! this was fun...come back soon.

Friday Morning Nature Blogging

Meet Bee Boo.



Bee Boo is an Amazon Parrot, He/She is 11 years old. We call Bee Boo he. I believe Bee Boo is male I don't know why but I do. His owners are my Man's Aunt and Uncle.

Most likely my oldest daughter is going to end up with this bird. They live a very long time, he is her same age and his owners are well elderly.

The damn bird LOVES! my daughters, he dances when they come into the room, he says HI! like Joey says "How you doin?" on friends...really. He talks to them, let's them pet his head, hold his foot (like they're holding hands, it's cute) he'll sit on their shoulder pirate style if he's not being a brat.

I have a feeling that I will have to care for a Parrot in the future, lucky for me he's a riot so it won't be to much trouble.

Inflatable you

Ladies and Gentlemen...Tim Minchin.

Conversations with Children

Daughter: Daddy? will you go to the pool with us tonight?

Daddy: Sure Honey.

Daughter: YAY! Dad...you rock like tea pot.

Daddy: I rock like tea pot? what's tea pot?

Daughter: You know 'I'm a little tea pot short and stout' you rock like tea pot.

Daddy: Tea pot rocks?

Daughter: Yeah, tea pot rocks.

OUCH!

I was just over reading my celebrity blog Neil Gaiman. author of Stardust for anyone who is unfamiliar with him by just his name, also author of The Sandman, one of my personal favorites and it seems he had an accident.

DAMN! ouch.

Okay People...

Even if you have full coverage, your insurance company will not cover your stolen car if you leave your car unlocked...with the keys in it...


Jus sayin'

Two Beautiful days in a row...

So after Lynne over at In the Rays of a Beautiful Sun gave our glowing orb a serious tongue lashing it said "Okay Okay, I was just taking a nap, geesh" It decided to show it's face. WOW! look it.


Sunshine!

And the result of this beautifulness...

Sunburnt...



If you look close you can see the Evil King's reflection in the window behind me as he took this picture...He said "look pissed"...done!.

Friday Morning Nature Blogging

These pictures were taken this morning from my dining room window, I'm still not feeling well today and I was going to forgo my Nature blog but then I opened the door to let the cat out and they just walked right by and stood there and posed for me. How fortuitous.

I'm a little under the weather today...

So I'm gonna cheat...here's a one of those effing quiz's; Caio babies!

Which Greek god/goddess are you? Demeter You are Demeter! Demeter was the Goddess of Agriculture, Her daughter was taken by Hades, the God of the Underworld to become Queen of the Underworld. She was devastated and the world went into a state of perpetual Winter. She bargained with Hades that she could see her daughter half of every year, the Spring and Summer, which bloomed with flowers and returned to it's regular state while Fall and Winter stayed barren.

Compromise

COMPROMISE:

~ A Settlement of differences reached by mutual concessions ~

Her ~ I'm gonna wear a skirt today OK?

Me ~ You can't wear a skirt today, you have p.e. but you can wear a skort.

Her ~ But last week we had p.e. so this week we have music.

Me ~ No that's thursdays.

Her ~ What's today?

Me ~ Today is Wednesday.

Her ~ oh.

Me ~ You have five skorts, pick one.

Her ~ but...

Me ~ Listen...I could be a hard ass and demand that you wear jeans today as it's cold and wet AND you have p.e. but I'm going to compromise. That means we both want something different, you want to wear a skirt and I want you to wear jeans but we compromise with the skort. Underneath it's shorts but on the outside it looks like a skirt...we both kinda get what we want, get it?

Her ~ Yeah...Mom?

Me ~ Yes?

Her ~ Can I just wear jeans?

I love the 90's

This is Veruca Salt my favorite 90's girl band...well one of them.

This is why I live here...

Okay this being my third post for the day I can safely get away with not posting tomorrow (yeah right) and take a break for the day...but I just had to post this one.

On my way over to have coffee with my girlfriend Marie this stepped out in front of my truck and I just happened to have my camera in the seat next to me...


Since I had to stop for her to cross the street I figured I'd take the opportunity to take her picture.

And show you the view from Marie's house while I'm at it.


Now I'm gonna go ahead and shut right up...thank you for your time.

Fun Monday

That's right folks......take it in.

That right there was my first love. My Daddy bought me that very record....it was vinyl...that's right.

It was my first album. It was also 1978 and I was...young. I actually imagined he was singing to me. Ahh the mentality of a...young girl.

I did the little girl thing and I wrote my name using Gibb as my last name instead of my own, I listened to his record until I wore it out, I told my Dad I was going to Marry him when I grew up. He promptly informed me of the age difference between us. I cared not, I was to young to understand what inappropriate was.

In 1988 when he died of heart problems I was very sad, although my crush had moved on to Johnny Depp by that point the little girl in me cried for her once heart throb.

If you asked me now I'd still say Johnny Depp, but he wasn't first.

Early Morning in Astoria...

It's nice to wake up and see this kinda thing....




Living this close to the river and the shipping lanes I get the treat of seeing this kind of thing all the time.
However it can tend to be hard to sleep if the fog rolls in and the ships have to pass under the bridge in the middle of the night. Ship horns are loud, especially when your only 4 blocks from them.
Now if only I had a better camera I'd have been able to get the the most awesome shot of it in the dark.
Alas this was the best I could do. BUT! I will some day in the near future may be have a better one and will be able to astound you all with my fo-to skillzzz.

Once I was a Hippie chick...

Now, don't let that scare you off. I've changed.

And I was what you would call a bathing Hippie. I have a hygiene product addiction. I have been told "One woman does not need 5 different soaps to wash one body" I disagree.

What this did was, allow people to experience Patchouli oil the way it was intended, as a perfume and not an alternative to soap. I've actually had Patchouli haters say "what are you wearing it's wonderful?" HA! it's Pathchouli, I digress.

Once I was a very outspoken, colorful individual. I dyed my waist length hair so vivid red that I once stopped traffic...in Portland...near Lloyd Center. I dressed like a belly dancer, super short shirts and ankle length gauze skirts tied low on my hips, the better to show off my crescent moon tattoo on my left hip. I'd wear lots of tinkly bells around my ankles and wrists with no shoes unless I absolutely had to.

I smoked...whatever I wanted...drank whatever I wanted...pretty much where ever I wanted . It was the 90's and a new-age hippie had emerged. We listened to the DOORS but also Nirvana. We were not scared of water and soap, the better to get close enough for people to hear you talk about peace and love and a future where my friends and I could live on one big piece of land and live off it together.

We even had a fund going for a while, and weekly meetings to discuss what to do and where to do it.

Some where it turned into just a reason to drink beer.

Some place I laid down my bells and never picked them up again.

Some time I cut off all my hair and let the natural color re-emerge.

Some how I forgot that I was a sight to behold and I stopped expecting others to be awed by my presence.

Maybe I forgot, maybe I grew up, maybe my children became more important than all of that.

Maybe I didn't really lose something important to me, maybe I just put it away.

And that's okay because who I was made me who I am today and I think that person is alright.

Friday Morning Nature Blogging

This is Brietenbush Hot Springs. It happens to be one of the tubs that the natural hot spring runs into. Here there are no phones allowed, no computers, t.v.'s, nothing electronic. Maybe lights...I think they have electric light but with a fireplace in almost every living area I probably wouldn't use it.
I could really use a weekend here without my kids.

Well...

Fun Monday turned into we've already seen that Tuesday and then where'd she go Wednesday and now it's Thursday and Monday's post is still up.

So I've been lazy. And I have no excuse.

I have however been spending alot of time at the pool with my kids, I can't rave enough about the Astoria Aquatic Center. If your ever in Astoria on Vacation you must go there. You don't have to be a resident to get in and it's only $4.50 a person. Hell that's cheaper than a movie.

Also if you are here, you must go to the Fort George Brewery my new favorite place to go (psst, hey, $3.50 a pint!). My neighbor's are the owner operator's. They make their own beer and sausage's and I must say the best ever!.

Okay I'm gonna call this my Thursday morning plug.

So...Come....Vacation in Fair Astoria, Good beer, Good food, wonderful music and theatre, and lots to do in the day time too.