Aren't you tired of seeing our big mugs?

I don't have anything well thought out for this post.
Just thought you might need a scenery change from the wedding picture!
Life has been nonstop.
We have been working on the house, living and breathing it actually. Lest it swallow us alive.
Slowly but surely we are getting it there.
Its pretty slow though.
Like a dream where you're walking through black sticky tar.
Ryan's been doing an awesome job though.
He's really been putting his nose to the grindstone. Things never go quite as planned for such a large remodel.
And since going back to work this last week, it has been a struggle to keep his mind on his real job.

I took some pictures of the house to show the progress, and even though it's only 9pm, it feels like midnight.
So, I'm not even going to look at them.
No, I will not.
I have alot to do on the computer actually.
I have pictures to edit for a certain cousin of mine.
And I have pictures to edit of a certain son of mine.
And I have to clean off this danged old hard drive again, because it keeps yelling at me.
But first and foremost we have got to get this house taken care of.
I can't wait to have an evening of r&r.
We're definitely going to need a serious vacation after this.

Six Adventurous Years!!!

Today marks Ryan's and my sixth anniversary.
It's been quite an adventure.
I was trying to chronologically date all the events that have happened in our marriage to date. But everything is running together. And I'd have to sit down with paper and write it all out.

So, I'll just say that it's been fun!
I wouldn't have it any other way.

I love my husband.
He is so good to me.

Happy Anniversary Ryan!
(Cuz I know you're a lurker)




Although this has been a crazy week with the house stuff. Ryan is going to make this a short work day and we are going to go to the Street of Dreams tonight....and dream!
And then out for dessert and drinks. Maybe dinner. And probably not in that order at all.

Our Mountain To Climb

About 9 months ago, we purchased a house that was about to be foreclosed. We followed a program that is working great for our other 2 rentals, and rented it back to the people that were already living there.
This place has been nothing but trouble from almost day 1.
The people are liars.
They were absolutely filthy.
Not to mention the utter ruin that they left the house in when we evicted them

Ryan has this week off work.

We had to rent at 40 yard dumpster. 40 freaking yards. It's full by the way. That's construction grade.

Anyway, we've known for awhile that the day would come when we would have to evict these people. So we've been praying for awhile that God would help us out with this mistake that we made.

We can already see Him orchestrating things.
It's kinda neat to watch.

For instance.
In our initial depression of the state of this house. The neighbors were ecstatic to have them gone. They were literally throwing a party and gushing all over us in thanks.
Have you ever seen "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation"? Hasn't everyone?
Well they had a motor home that was identical to cousin Eddy's.
And they had that old decrepit thing parked in the driveway.
So...
needless to say.
the neighbors were ecstatic.
So it was hard to be sad and depressed when there was so much laughter and celebration

Also, one of the neighbors gave Ryan a tip on a metal recycling place that was right up the road. So he dedicated an hour and separated some metal and came back with $125 dollars. Sweet.

So he found some more and took it back, pulling in right behind a guy that said he recycled refrigerators. It was going to cost us an extra $40 to put the fridge in the dumpster, this guy was free. So Ryan hopped out and talked to the dude. He made another $28 on the second round of metal, but the real jackpot was finding that guy.

In the meantime, I was scouring craigslist for different items for the bathroom. Since the bathroom has been gutted. (due to the toilet almost falling through the floor) I found a beautiful pedestal sink and a toilet. Wouldn't you know that the guy with the sink was only a block and a half away from the house? So, we got the sink and the faucet for $60. The toilet was only $20 and that was only 20 blocks away from the house. So Ryan went and bought those and only spent a little over half of the money he got back from the metal.

Our family came out last night and helped Ryan fill up that dumpster. It was full. Did I mention that?
The backyard was full of junk.
The basement was full of junk.
The garage was full of junk.
The driveway was full of junk.
The front yard was full of junk.
The only thing that was amazingly almost empty was the house itself. (besides the basement)
The pictures are good, but they don't begin to do justice to just how much there truly was.

Oh...I don't think I mentioned that they had a grow operation set up in the basement as well.
Nice huh?

Anyway, I couldn't be in the work party last night, because there wasn't anyone to watch Wyatt for me. But I saw the "after" video that Ryan took, and wow does it ever look better.
All that junk was what was really daunting for Ryan.
I think he might enjoy the projects to come in the house.

We've hired someone from church to do the bathroom. It was the worst.

There is still a long way to go.

But there is hope.

If you think of us...please pray for us, because this is a mountain.

Dutch Babies

It's Friday (as I write this) it's supposed to be 104 degrees. The thought of oatmeal, grits, or scrambled eggs for breakfast wasn't cutting it this morning.
So although it's very unpractical to fire up the oven for making breakfast this morning...I did it anyway.
Such a rebel.
That's what we got the air conditioning for right? Well not really. We got it because when Wyatt was an infant, we had a day like this and it got up around 95 in the house. In my lethargic state, I didn't think to go shopping or find refuge in someone else's a/c. Ryan came home to me spraying water on Wyatt, sitting under the ceiling fan. He took one step into the house and announced that we were going out for dinner.

So anyway...back to breakfast.

This is the first thing that I learned to make as a little girl. It's a cinch. I've had many people ask me for the recipe though.
It's so easy.
easy
easy
easy!!!

So the basic recipe is this:
For every egg add 1/4 cup flour, and 1/4 cup milk.
That's it.
truly.

Of course, I add a couple other things, like salt and vanilla.

Dutch Babies

Preheat oven to 425

6 eggs
1 1/2 C. Flour
1 1/2 C. Milk or Buttermilk
Dash of salt
about a tsp of vanilla

Blend all ingredients together. Take whatever pan you want. I usually make personal ones, but I've made it in a casserole dish too.
I put about a tablespoon of butter in the bottom of the pan and melt in the preheating oven.
(if butter doesn't cover the pan, put more in)
Then pour your batter in the pan, if you have more than one pan, just divide it up.
*note* this is the amount of eggs I use and it feeds Ryan, Wyatt and I. Add or subtract the eggs depending on how many you have to feed.

Bake for 15 min.
Wyatt loves to watch things bake in the oven.

Top with whatever your favorite pancake topping is.

Wyatt likes Maple Syrup. I like Jam.

And a little bit of powdered sugar never hurt anyone.

and ta da!!!

"Swimming" at Grandma's

On Wednesday, my mom called me and asked if we could come over in the afternoon and play in the kiddie pool. She bought Wyatt a pool at the end of the season last year, and we hadn't set it up yet.
The water was freezing, so he didn't spend too much time inside the pool. He spent most of his time letting the water out of the pool. Grandma kept trying to start a splash war.
We had a blast, I took over 100 pictures while Wyatt and Grandma played in the pool.

I made an album and will post it on the right hand side of the screen...enjoy!!

"Want A Wife"

So on Monday, we had a playdate at April's house. Wyatt played with the kids upstairs in their great playroom. And the mommies ate yummy food and visited with each other.
We had a great time at Aprils, but consequently it threw Wyatt's nap schedule off. He fell asleep in the car, and woke up when I put him in his bed. I knew that he needed more sleep so I left him in his room to try to go back to sleep.
He stayed in there for about an hour and didn't go back to sleep.
He was awfully quiet.
That's usually never a good thing.
So about an hour into it, he comes out of his room saying "want a wife", "want a wife".
(wife = wipe)
He turned around the corner and had a purple face, and four little bits of slobbery chunks of chalk in his little hand.
So, I got him cleaned up, but he was still pretty anxious. He kept asking for a "wife". So, I gave him a wipe and followed him into his room. He was furiously wiping away at a purple spot on his bed sheet. I laughed at him (on the inside), went and took pictures, and then halfheartedly told him that he is to never do that again. *snicker snicker* (to myself of course) "What?"

Beach Trip (what a creative title)

Well, I can't believe it's been since February when we last went to my parent's beach house in Neskowin. But, we made it back there this weekend! It was a much needed trip. We are about to have a lot going on in our life and this was sorta the last hurrah.
So, mom and dad usually don't get to come until Saturday afternoon when we go to the beach. But, instead, we got to the house at the same time this time.
On Friday, I got the car all packed up and drove downtown to Ryan's work and picked him up. I've never done that by myself before. It was daunting, but it worked out ok. I had Ryan pick me up a coffee at Peets before we got on the road. I love Peets.
We got there much earlier than we usually do, but leaving right at about 5 meant being stuck in traffic for a LONG time. So from start to finish, a trip that should have only taken about 2 hours, had Wyatt and I in the car for about 4 hours. I was sick of driving after that.
Saturday morning (I say morning very loosely) at about 5am, (it was still dark out, not morning yet) Ryan and I got up and went on a fishing excursion just the 2 of us. It was an adventure, but neither of us really know what we're doing. We were out fishing for about 5 and a half hours and we got totally skunked. I mean, Ryan caught a few "fingerlings", but they didn't count...forget I even mentioned them.
Grandma and Grandpa had a great time with Wyatt while we were gone. After breakfast, they took him to the beach and let him play in the sand and water.
We had a pretty relaxing afternoon, due in part to the fact that we were exhausted from getting up at 5am.
But, we had fish on the brain. We didn't like being beat out by the fishies, taunting us by rolling all around us, but never biting our yummy looking bait. MMMMM.
So, we had an early dinner. And all of us set out once again to go to Tillamook, OR and then on to Garabaldi. We were, once again, skunked.
So, with our heads hanging.... JK
So, we went back to our neck of the woods and went down on the beach for a fire and some "fire corn".
Problem. We forgot a flashlight. It was dark by the time we got down to the beach, and we didn't have firewood with us. So we wandered around aimlessly looking for sticks and driftwood in the dark. After finding a few old firepits with some abandoned wood, we were in business.
So, now, the "fire corn".
Oh my goodness. I would totally suggest that everyone give this a try sometime. My mom put these together, and we were getting pretty creative coming up with stuff to put in these. So all of the corns were a little bit different. But it was corn on the cob, double wrapped in aluminum foil but inside she put yellow pepper, cilantro, garlic, grapes (the grapes, I thought that was weird, but one of the best additions), Parmesan cheese, and jalapeño slices. We just threw these on the coals, and oh my goodness...yummy!!! Wyatt fell asleep on the beach and we didn't leave till nearly midnight.
So, today, we slept in.
Mom made a delicious breakfast. We just got ready to come home and relaxed.
Honestly.
I didn't take any pictures of this weekend until today.
Then I started feeling guilty about not taking pictures, so I started snapping away this morning.
But, thankfully, my mom took pictures of their trip to the beach yesterday!!

Home Grown Pickles...

Ok...there is no way I should be blogging right now.
I am busy getting ready for the weekend, but once again...I'm distracted.

So, we have a weird hillside in the back (front) of our house and I decided to grow my own pickles this year and see how it went. I also threw in some watermelon and corn too.
Well, I went out yesterday and low and behold, there were quite a few cukes already.
I made pickles 2 years ago, and ended up coming home with a 25 pound bag of cukes.
Oh my goodness...our house smelled of vinegar for the next month.
That was a job.
Well, I only had enough for 2 quarts. So I halved this recipe and went to making my pickles.
It takes a couple months to cure...so I don't know how they actually are...but they turned out pretty.
I can't do the water bath, but I'm very careful to sterilize, sterilize, sterilize...boil boil boil.
We are still eating the pickles from 2 years ago...check...I'm still hoarding them in my pantry.
I guess, I need to start sharing.

Showering Jackie

...or something like that!
So Saturday was the brunch baby shower for Jackie.
Here are a few pictures from Saturday.

The Spread

Now, where did this come from?

The Gals...Note Baby London looking at the camera...so cute!!

Baby London (Savannah's Babe)

The Gifts

Opening Gifts

The Cake

The Centerpiece

Me, Jackie and Bonnie

April, Me, Jackie, Bonnie, Betty and Savannah.

It was a fun day...Ryan, Wyatt and I crashed hard after everyone left. I'm not a napper AT ALL. But, I laid down and took an hour and a half long nap. I must have really needed it!!!