Outdoor School is over : (

I offered to let G dictate this, but she
declined. She did pick out these pictures
to share though...

Meal time was fun... but weird.


She made volcanoes...





The Tree Ceremony.




The student leaders.


G's boyfriend in the background and new friends.




View from the campfire site. You can barely see Mt. Hood
in the picture.



Once again, meal times were fun (she's dancing with
toilet paper).


The goodbye song.


Loam cleanses your pores.


Cabin mates. Nymph and Echo were the student leaders
for her cabin (those aren't their real names).


She misses Nymph.

She also misses Echo, but she didn't get an
individual picture of her.

G had a fabulous time and she is sad to be home.
She wants to be a student leader when she is in
high school.

Goats

I love them. I love them enough that I've considered
moving to the country so I can live with some. But I
know that if I had more animals to care for than the
amount I currently have, I'd most definitely go insane.
So I keep my house in the city and visit my friend R in
the country who has 80 goats!

This little guy is my favorite. He's a lot like a dog,
minus the panting and drooling.


These goats could work on their manners. Perhaps their
mothers never told them it isn't polite to stare.


I think one of the reasons I love goats so much is
because they are always smiling.


One word. Adorable.

Life is good again

I've been in a hole for about the past month
or so. My bf and I broke up, and G started Middle
School. Her elementary school was a huge part
of my life. I volunteered there all the time
for the past 5 years. I knew lots of the other
moms and dads. I knew all the kids in her grade.
I knew all the teachers. It was my community.
But now she's in Middle School. She doesn't
want me around as much. I don't know the majority of
the kids and families at the new school, and I
CAN'T be around as much because the school is
not wheelchair accessible.

Dealing with those two losses has been really
tough. So I've been mourning. I took the dogs to
the dog park yesterday and today and I feel tons
better. Tons. I hadn't gone there but for a few
times over the summer, and all these people and
dogs I knew from last year were so happy to see me.
It's funny, I didn't realize before how important
it is to feel like you are a part of a community.
Even introverted me needs a place to go where
everyone knows my name.

All is good again in the world. Okay, not all,
but my mental health has improved so much... just
from spending one hour at the dog park.

This puppy helped too.


Puppies are the best therapy in the world.

These last few days

have been crappy.

I don't know how many times I've watched this
video, but it almost never fails to make me smile.


But then there's this one

This one almost always makes me laugh, and it never
fails to at least make me smile.

Let's see... what else has made me happy...

I'm going out to dinner tonight with a good friend
and we are going to one of my favorite restaurants.

The weather has been gorgeous.

I'm really proud of G for handling her first few
days of Middle School so well.

I discovered a place walking distance from my house
that has excellent milk shakes.

Dunny Series 5 is out! http://www.kidrobot.com/
I will be getting some today after picking up
G from school.

I hired someone to clean up my backyard. It looks
so much better.

A new guy moved in across the street. He just moved
to PDX from Vancouver BC, and he seems like a really
nice guy.

I still have my best bud by my side.




There are lots of things to be happy about. Sometimes
I have to stop and remind myself.

This is cool...

Smart dog

Note: This is not my dog. It's just a video I found
on YouTube.

Getting surprise packages in the mail

makes me happy.

The mailman came to my front door today
with a package. My first thought was that
he was at the wrong house. But then I
looked at the package and it was for me!
My friend A sent it to me and it's not
even my birthday! : D

Inside was a painting which I assume was
done by one or both of her boys...

Thank you E and/or W!

Also inside was this neat tile...


And, this lovely book...


Thank you A! It made my day!

Pig sitting

We are guinea pig sitting for a few days.
I like this gig. We get to enjoy him,
but we don't get terribly attached to him
and we don't have the expenses of being
a pet owner.

Making my daughter happy

makes me happy.

I've never been interested in American Idol,
however, when my daughter started watching the
last season, I quickly got sucked in.

Last night the top 10 performed here in Portland.
I took my daughter to it and she totally loved
it. And I'll admit, I liked it. It was a good
show. Most impressive to me was David A, which
is interesting because I wasn't liking him much
on the show. He was so good live. He's an
excellent singer and I think that boy will go
far.

Stupid me didn't bring my camera.

Creature Discomforts

The Leonard Cheshire Disability campaigns to change the way people think about, and respond to, disability. Creature Discomforts is one way they hope to do that. Since their campaign launched last November, thousands of people have expressed their desire to change their attitudes. Now, their second series hopes to bring the message to even more.

Check out all of their fantastic ads at CreatureDiscomforts.org.

Dale Chihuly

Love his work. I finally got to see it
in person the other day. We stopped by
the Museum of Glass located in Tacoma
Washington. They have an amazing collection
of Chihuly's work. There is a bridge that
goes over I-5 and it's dedicated
to Dale Chihuly (he grew up in Tacoma).


And the even better







I NEED to go back there. We only had a couple of hours
to spend there, but I could easily spend all day and the
next day too there.

0mg caffeine

Maybe I shouldn't write about this, because I
know it's going to make me look incredibly
stupid, but it's too funny to keep it to myself.

My daughter and I were in the grocery store
yesterday and she was looking at a power bar
thing. We were arguing about whether or
not it had caffeine in it. She said it
didn't, but I thought it probably did. So
I took the package from her and I pointed
to the "0mg Caffeine", and I said, "See,
look it's got OMG (Oh My God) Caffeine!"

I think I spend too much time on the computer.

It reminded me of something funny I saw at
her school a few months ago. The 2nd graders
wrote hints to things that were hidden under
a flap. One of the things under the flap
was a macaw. A kid wrote a hint saying,
"It lives in the Amazon.com".

Praying Mantids

A few weeks ago I purchased a praying mantis
egg sac. They hatched this morning!

Although I didn't count them, there are usually
200 - 300 mantids per egg.

The neighbor boy was looking at them and asked,
"Did you name them all?"

Just hatched:

They must not be hungry when they first hatch because
they aren't eating each other yet. They also aren't
eating aphids or wet cat food. (According to something
on the internet, they will eat wet cat food.)

I'll name this one. I'll call her Nora. Someday
Nora will devour her mate. I told Nora that if she
is a he, it would be in his best interest to seriously
consider celibacy.

One Adult, One car, Four 5th Grade Girls

I helped drive part of my daughter's class to
an end of the year party located at a state park
45 minutes away....

4 girls, all screaming, er um, excuse me, singing
Hannah Montana songs as loudly as they could. That
was the ride there. Our time at the park was quite
nice despite the rain and cold. (Hello? It's June
and 50 degrees. WTH?) They played softball, ate
lunch, and played Capture the Flag. I got tons of
great photos, but of course won't be posting pictures
of other people's kids on the internet.

Not unlike the drive there, the drive home included
lots of screaming. This time it was at the carload
of boy classmates ahead of us and the carload of
boy classmates behind us.

Children's books

Oh how I love them.

I just got The Story of Ferdinand
yesterday. I have no idea how this one got
by me when G was little. We read so many books,
but never this one. It was first published in
1936. It's a great story, and the illustrations
are fantastic.

I'm sorry

When I picked up my daughter from school today,
I found these posted on the walls. They were
written by 4th and 5th graders. Some of the
funniest ones:

Day trips to the beach