so, i thought my kid liked broccoli...

...honestly, he really does like it when its cooked. however, the other day he was in the kitchen begging me for food before dinner was ready, so i gave him a piece of uncooked broccoli. a few minutes later i saw him empty handed and was quite impressed that he actually ate it! of course, it took me a bit longer to find where he had decided to dispose of it. i wonder what other sorts of hiding places he's been using to house his unwanted snacks?

frugal friday

today i decided not only to write about being frugal, but also to attempt being as frugal as possible while still having fun with my boy. first, we stopped at k-mart where i returned 2 plastic storage bins, receiving $32 back. they were purchased yesterday and i brought them back to see if we could find something cheaper. sure enough, i was able to purchase 3 plastic storage bins that weren't quite as fancy for a total of $17.

upon stepping out of k-mart, my son hightailed it for the mechanical horse that sits outside the door to the store. i lifted him up into the saddle and allowed him a few moments of pretending to ride while fondly remembering the horses that my brother and i used to ride at the super-value store when we were kids. there were 2 horses side by side and it only cost a dime to operate both of them. this horse, however was asking for 50c to which i said "no way!" thankfully, tristan is still at the age where he doesn't care one way or another if the horse moves or not. he happily followed me next door into a tiny little donut shop.

i ordered 2 donut holes for 15c each plus a small coffee and we had a seat at a greasy table. tristan, unaccustomed to sugar, began getting the "sugar giggles" while i, sipping on my micro-mini styrofoam cup of coffee, began getting the "caffeine giggles". we giggled and nibbled and watched people come and go. there were plenty of very friendly older folks who gave me a smile and tristan a wink. there were a couple of other moms that came through with their pre-schoolers and one grandmother who purchased her granddaughter a cake donut with pink frosting and sprinkles. when the grandmother presented the little girl with her very own bottle of chocolate milk complete with a straw, the little girl's eyes danced as she exclaimed "oooh, a donut AND chocolate milk?" as if she had won the lottery. tristan was quite smitten with her and kept a close eye on her in between enthusiastic bites of his treat. as we were leaving, i got a bit of free advice from the asian owner. in her broken english, she advised me to talk to my son "arl of a time" to ensure that he'd begin speaking soon. i think she believed, like most strangers do, that he is at least a year older than he actually is.

next stop was the park. the cost for parking is $3 so i, of course, parked down the street where it doesn't cost a penny and put tristan in the stroller to walk to the pond. we fed the ducks our old heels of stale bread. well, i shouldn't say "we" because i've learned not to give tristan stale bread to feed the ducks with. inevitably, he'll get tired of throwing the bread as hard as he can, only to watch it fall a few inches from his feet, so he'll give up and eat the rest of it himself. morning snack issue solved! after waving bye-bye to the ducks and praising tristan for doing the sign for duck so well, we walked to the playground where he practised going up the stairs and down the slide all by himself, which is new for him.

finally, we got back into the car and drove to the thrift store to donate a few old toys and clothing items and to see what's new this week. there were a ton of nice board books for only 39c each, so i gathered up a few of those, plus a bundle of children's clothes hangers for 99c. i splurged a teensy bit on a hand towel holder for $1.99 and found a few children's paperbacks for the church library.

a cheap snack, free advice, free parking, and great deals.....plus we came home with more money than we left with, thanks to that return. not bad at all!

the evolution of swimwear

on the days when the thermometer pushes 100 degrees, there really aren't many options when it comes to Fun Family Time. thankfully, we have friends who have a swimming pool. and these friends, bless their hearts, told us we can use their pool any time we want. of course, if we truly used their pool any time we wanted to, we'd be in there day in and day out. so far we've restrained ourselves and visited only once this year.

it was friday and josh was home from work blessedly early. the house would not remain cool no matter how many fans i turned on, so when josh suggested we use our friends' pool, i lickety splitted it up the stairs into our oven-like bedroom to pull out my swimsuit and put it on. when i looked into the mirror for a quick once-over i discovered that the style of this particular bit of swimwear should not be worn on my particular shape of body. last summer, when i purchased said bit of swimwear, i was lugging around plenty more tummy than i am this summer. though this sounds like a good thing, it doesn't bode well when the tummy is smaller, but the bosom is not, and when this particular bit of swimwear has an Incredibly Plunging Neckline. i suppose my larger belly sort of took the attention off of the neckline somewhat last year, but now that there's no belly to distract, the neckline looks....hmmm....lets just say quite inappropriate. josh agreed with my assessment, but assured me that it wouldn't matter to go swimming in it just this once, since our friends probably wouldn't be home anyhow, so nobody would see me.

we had fun in the pool, though it took tristan a good 20 minutes to stop whining about being in the water. indeed, nobody other than my two boys saw me in my inappropriate swimwear, but on the way home i realized that tristan will be starting swimming lessons in about a week and, since its a moms and tots group, i'll need to be in the pool with him, wearing something a little more appropriate than what i had on that day.

i thought it'd be easy. how could i think that? early saturday morning while josh was busy installing new ceiling fans into our bedrooms (hooray!) tristan and i marched into the swimwear department of the nearest kohl's store. all i needed was something under $30 that appropriately covered my bosom and, preferably, wasn't in a loud, ugly print. after trying on about 10 different suits, i discovered that one of my prerequisites was going to have to be chucked out the window if i wanted to bring home a new swimsuit that day. i think that the Incredibly Plunging Neckline must really be in style this year because nearly every tankini has one. the one-pieces that promised to "trim and shape instantly!" delivered their promise, but would cost me nearly 3 times the amount i wanted to spend. everything else was just plain ugly.

dejected, tristan and i got into the car to drive back home, empty handed. as we were nearing our house, however, the little local k-mart caught my eye. i know, i know, what good thing can be found in k-mart? i was willing to take a look. this time, instead of browsing through the misses' department containing all the bosom baring tankinis in cute prints, i went straight to the women's section containing swimwear that boasted so much coverage that they looked suspiciously similar to the little outfits that professional ice-skaters wear. i found something in black and gave tristan a little bowl of snacks in the fitting room to keep him quiet.

*under $30? check.

*appropriately covered bosom? check. (actually, they were so appropriately covered that it looked as if i had lost my bosom all together)

*non-ugly print? check. solid black. timeless, right?

the next day, i showed my purchase to josh. i had warned him ahead of time that my new swimsuit was slightly "granny looking" and could be considered "cheesy". he denied neither of those descriptions when i held it up to show him. actually, i don't think he said one word. he's a smart man. later, when i fished the receipt out of the bag, a word on it caught my attention. rather than swimsuit, the item i purchased is called a swimdress. hmmmmm.

i took a moment to reminisce about the evolution of swimwear that i''ve had the pleasure of wearing. from the little pink one-piece that was my favourite as a child (it had a turquoise ruffle at the top that reminded me of icing) to the first bikini i ever wore when i was 13 (my dad nearly had a heart attack when i pranced around with it on at a beach while camping with my family, in plain view of many males.) i used to buy a new bikini every spring because i wore them so much in summer that they wore right out! some of them, i still have tucked away in the back of a dresser drawer in hopes that one day, after all my babies have been born and i've had time to really get back into shape, that maybe i will wear them again. a girl can always dream, right?

one of those days

lately, thursday has been a day that i very much look forward to. a few months ago, josh arrived home on a thursday to me basically giving him a hug and a peck, grabbing my purse and saying "i'm outta here." i just HAD to escape. it had been one of those days where i felt as if my toddler was a tumor attached to my leg. a very whiny, needy unsatisfiable tumor. so i drove through the mcdonald's drive thru and got myself a 99c ice cream cone, then found a nice shady parking spot and read a book while eating my ice cream. it was the most lovely 50 minutes i had spent in a very long time. when i got home, i realized that i had a bit of explaining to do to my dear husband, who wasn't sure whether i had left because i was upset with him and whether or not i was ever coming back. after i explained the reason behind my Very Necessary Departure, he made this brilliant suggestion: "hey, why don't you do this every thursday afternoon when i get home from work?" didn't have to think very long about my reply to that one.

its been awhile since we've had a normal week around here, so my special thursday outings haven't really happened lately. today, however, it WILL happen. because i so need it to. today has been one of those days.

its been one of those days where, at 4:30am, i'm rubbing the cobwebs from my eyes while carrying a very wide awake toddler downstairs so that he doesn't wake daddy up, all the while kicking myself for not going to bed at 8pm last night like i had planned. its been one of those days where my head, body and throat won't stop hurting, especially when my boy gets excited about something and lets out his ear piercing shriek that sounds like something a creature from a fantasy movie might make. its been one of those days where the diapers are filled with smelliness only minutes after they are changed, where cups of liquid are no longer safe on shelves that used to be out of reach, where couch cushions are baptized and laid out to dry, where sippy cups of milk suddenly decide to lose their "no spill" feature and drain out onto the carpet, and where pages from library books are torn into shreds.

by about 9am its really too hot to do much of anything outside, so i decided to walk to the little grocery store around the corner early. who knew that it only opened at 8am? 8am feels like midday to me. while waiting at the door of the store for it to open, i caught a glimpse of my reflection and was horrified to see that i had forgotten to put my contacts in this morning. i was wearing my ancient "granny glasses" that really aren't that bad except for the fact that they're completely missing an entire side. both lenses are intact and i have one arm over one ear, but the other arm was broken off months ago (bet you can't guess which charming little angel did the damage) and i've been so careful ever since not to be caught in public wearing them. until this morning, of course. i momentarily contemplated walking home and putting in my contacts and walking back, (yes, they embarrass me THAT much!) but i thought better of it and hurriedly grabbed what i needed, hoping that the cashier wouldn't notice that i was looking at her out of the corner of one eye in an attempt to hide my amputated eye wear.

on top of all this, i feel a little sad today. its funny that i find this difficult to admit, but i do still have sad days (doesn't everyone?) and today i just can't shake it completely. i'm looking forward to having myself a good cleansing cry later on. until then, i'm counting down the hours till josh gets home and checking to see if the couch cushions are dry yet.

my dad

the earliest memory i have of my dad is the view from atop his shoulders. in my memory, i can see the top of his black and white striped railway cap that he always wore. my little hands are on top of his hat, my knees are firmly grasped in his hands, and we are walking down some sort of path with grass and trees on either side. i think we're on a bit of a hike.

finding a father's day card in the store for my dad has always been a challenge. there are dozens of cards about golfing. my dad doesn't golf. there are dozens of cards about drinking beer and watching the game. my dad has never had beer in his life and watching the game is not something he'd ever choose to do. there are dozens of cards about grilling, mowing the lawn, fixing cars, etc. that my dad does do from time to time, but he's not really INTO any of that stuff. too bad they don't make father's day cards about building your own giant telescope. or how about a card for the avid gardener and nature lover? there's got to be at least one humorous card out there made for huge "Battlestar Galactica" fans.

the truth is, my dad is a very different dad from anyone i've ever met. he watched casablanca with me when i was only 7 years old. he is a master of the grapevine, with nearly a mini vineyard in his own backyard and no one who tastes his grape juice can deny that he has a gift. he loves to go on walks and hikes and if you happen to find a certain plant or bird that he cannot name, he will look it up and let you know that same day. (the chances, of course, of finding such a plant or bird are minute.) he's wicked good at playing hearts and scrabble. i've beaten him only once at scrabble. his second love (my mom was his first love) is the night sky and he adores going out with his scope on clear nights and gazing to his heart's content. he is a very gifted writer and often emails me articles that he writes for his astronomical society newsletter. (i've told him he needs to start his own blog, but so far no luck). he can fix pretty much anything, and if it can't be fixed, he'll at least tell you what's wrong with it. he is extremely thrifty and inventive and creates these little gadgets that are pretty cool, like the portable night lights that he fashions using mainly a large battery, some wires, and a mini light bulb. when i was a kid, he used to take me out on little "dates" where he'd open my door for me and drive me to vancouver and we'd do something that i would like together and go out for dinner, just him and i. i remember him sitting through "the land before time" with me in the theater.

my dad has been a hardworking railroad man all of his life and, in less than 7 months, he will officially be retired! he dreams of buying a pickup truck and a little camper and taking my mom and his scope down here for longer visits with me and my family as well as with the southern sky. dad, i just want you to know how much i appreciate all you have done to provide for me in your life. i love you so much. happy father's day.

frugal friday

today's Frugal Friday post is brought to you by your local farmer's market. that's right, even if you don't know it yet, you DO have a local farmer's market. and if there isn't one in the city that you live, google a few cities nearby and you'll be sure to find one. that's precisely what i did, knowing that our small town doesn't have one. i picked a random city that we visit frequently, found the address, dates and times, and early one saturday morning my two men and i drove down the hill to see what sort of deals we could find.

i tell you, it was love at first sight. this particular farmer's market is located in an old city park complete with lots of grass, picnic tables, a meandering stream, a playground and an old train that carries passengers around the park for a small fee. immediately, i wished that we had arrived sooner and packed ourselves a picnic lunch!

we first took our time amongst the bustling stalls, observing particular wares and prices before going back to make our purchases. i honestly didn't need a lot of produce at the time; next time we go i'll be sure to wait and buy all of my fruits and veggies from the delicious, organic choices that were on display. i did purchase the tastiest and cheapest bunch of carrots i've had in a long time, some gorgeous beets and a small packet of rice/lentils/seasonings that i just added chicken to in the crock pot to make a tasty and healthy meal.

not only will we pack a picnic next time we go, we'll also be sure to stand in the looong lineup in front of the stall selling french crepes made in front of your eyes with your choice of savoury or sweet toppings. we managed to resist the temptation of the mouth watering smells coming from the stall selling fresh carne asada tacos, though we seriously contemplated it for awhile. in the end, we wandered off, allowing tristan to enjoy the playground, and later took him on the train where he waved and waved to everyone and no one.

it was a great, nearly no cost day spent with my family and i'm already itching to go back. so, if you haven't visited your local farmer's market yet, what are you waiting for?

Lake Tahoe

josh tristan and i spent a most wonderful, relaxing week at lake tahoe. we stayed with friends who live on the south shore in an area called "Tahoe Paradise" and what a paradise it was! every day we walked or hiked to see even more breathtaking views than the day before. i had never been to lake tahoe before, and i know that will definitely go again.


the friends we stayed with, mark and amber have 2 daughters named bailee and morrison. bailee is 8 and morrison is 6. morrison immediately became enamored with tristan and he with her. she called him "baby tristan" and entertained him constantly. it was such a nice break for me, especially since he's been a bit more clingy this past month. he would play with the girls for awhile, then wander around their enormous house until he found either me or josh, then he'd toddle back to the girls to play some more. (for some more great pictures and videos of this trip that actually include people, see tristan's picture blog.)

this mountain is called mt. tallac and is known for the cross in the middle of it that the snow creates. even though it was the beginning of june, the weather was still cool and crisp and the landscape was still quite "spring" looking. tulips and daffodils were still in full bloom, as were the blossoms on many trees. it felt amazing to take such deep breaths of clean mountain air free of city smog. the landscape reminded me so much of whistler, bc that it made me a little homesick.

josh and i decided to frolic a little bit in an open meadow, which the kids waiting in the car thought was amusing.

i doubt i've ever seen a sky quite so blue. these were just some of the trees growing in our friend's front yard. they live only blocks away from national forest land, so just taking a walk down their street was a treat.

winter sports are huge up there as well, so we've already decided that next time we visit will be in the winter. mark and i will hold josh down as we strap a pair of skis on him and then we'll teach him to snowplow :) josh and mark go way back. they were best buds in high school and have remained close for all of these years. it shocked me how quickly tristan became attached to mark. he really never initiates any sort of play with a male other than his own daddy, but he and mark wrestled and played like none other. it was really great to see.

we didn't see any bears, thankfully, but we visited a park that had just recently hosted a birthday party where a bear came out of the woods and helped himself to the birthday cake!

we took over 500 photos, which just goes to show how much our eyes are starved for natural beauty. as i've said before, the area we live in has a beauty all its own, but everything gets to be so brown and bleak looking that i really tend to miss the million shades of green that i grew up around. it was hard for me to believe that we were still in the state of california. this amazing state has so many varied areas, its really quite incredible.

apparently, the folks from rachael ray's tasty travels had just been to this area of tahoe and this restaurant, the burger lounge will be on her show airing june 20th. the burgers were really great, but josh would contest that their garlic fries and strawberry shakes are what they do the best. he couldn't believe his taste buds when he tried his first shake there, and he went back 3 days in a row to sip on some more strawberry goodness. we were also treated to some fabulous home cooked meals from chef amber including rib eye steaks, bbq'd chicken, and a gorgeous full breakfast featuring biscuits and sausage gravy.

our days were pretty low key since we came back to the house in the middle of the day to allow tristan to take a proper nap. it was a great little siesta time for all of us and one day in particular, josh had both morrison and bailee sleeping on top of him while he napped on the couch. in the evenings, after all the kids were asleep, we'd stay up and play card games, listening to music and enjoying drinks.

the flight home yesterday was a little insane since our toddler had been awake since 5am and didn't get a proper nap in. he melted down a few times on our second flight causing my blood pressure to sky rocket as i apologized to anyone who gave us a murderous look. we arrived home at 5pm and, though no pine trees adorned our lawn, nor snow topped mountains looked down upon us, it felt SO good to be back. there truly is no place like home.

i'm BAAAAACK!

...and completely itching to blog, but there are not only suitcases begging to be unpacked, but also the most comfortable bed in the world begging to be slept in. i'll be back tomorrow, i promise :)

busy busy

i only have time to post a couple of pics from the past few weeks. that's josh, me and katherine. she is a friend of ours from georgia that attended capernwray hall with us 5 years ago. she came to stay with us for one night in the middle of may.


this is us with janine and andy from england. andy attended capernwray and later married janine who we met when we visited them on our trip to the uk 2 years ago. they stayed with us for plenty of nights and we had a blast with them.

we only just got our dsl back yesterday, and i've got a zillion emails to catch up on and other nonsense to do around the house. it was really difficult being without the internet for nearly 2 weeks, i felt like crying with relief when it got hooked back up! i've no idea when i'll catch up on blog reading since i'll be on another hiatus coming up here soon, but just wanted to pop in and say i'm still alive and really hope to post more pictures and words as soon as i can manage it!