Happy Birthday Lucas!!

Dashboard Cookies, gotta try it! . . .

So in today's Oregonian there is a very resourceful article. With our weather being in the 100's for the next couple of days . . and with the prediction that today's high temperature of 107 should break the all time record, this could be a fun project for Mom's and kids alike. It's called "Yes, Virginia it is soo hot that you CAN bake cookies on the dashboard of your car!" Well, in my Nissan Murano I have a dashboard that is wide enough & deep enough to easily accommodate a large size pizza box as my son so readily suggested the first week I brought it home from the car lot. So in today's paper these are the baking suggestions . . .
First - the temperature outside must be at least 95 degrees (today would be perfect), AND pick a recipe with an egg substitute instead of the real deal (don't want to be sick in the bathroom with salmonella poisoning!). Park so the dash will get direct sun for a few hours. Follow a "vegan" cookie recipe (remember, raw eggs may contain salmonella and a car might not get hot enough to kill it). Put a towel under the baking sheet to protect the dashboard. Spoon cookie dough onto the baking sheet. Close the doors and wait 2 to 3 hours. Don't expect cookies to be brown, since the sugar won't caramelize. The cookies are done when completely firm. Now, even if they don't taste that good, wouldn't it be cool just to say you did it . . . mmmmmm better than new car smell ;)

Yeah . . now it's mine!

The mascot at the high school I work at is the "Viking". Since I started working there 13 years ago, I have been collecting various Viking things to "spirit" up my work area. When I transferred into the Athletic Office about 8 years ago I really got into it. Our former Athletic Director had an impressive collection of various wooden carved Norwegian looking Vikings, and I sort of inherited those when he retired. Since then I have been adding to the collection. When I go to garage sales, antique shops or am just out browsing around in general I sort of always have my eye out for something unique or new that I don't already have. The high school kids get a kick out of looking at my work area with all my different Viking things, Viking hats, books about Vikings, a big Viking nutcracker, Viking face mask, Viking Barbie (now that was a find!), one of their favorites is my SpongeBob Viking. So you might imagine my complete glee when as I was shopping for a toy for my grandson's 2nd birthday I find the perfect gift from Grandma. A YoGabba Viking ship with little YoGabba Viking characters inside. I purchased it, wrap it up and have it ready to go to his party in the next couple of weeks . . . UNTIL I happened to stop by their house the other evening and as we are sitting in the backyard watching him play by his little pool . . I spot the YoGabba Viking ship with the little people floating in his wading pool. So I tell my son, "I just got that for him the other day . . thinking it would be a good gift from Grandma . . darn." . . oh well, back to the drawing board for a gift . . . but hey!! now I have a new item to display on my desk. . Oh . . yeah . . the kids are really going to like this!

Ahhh such a nice Daddy . . .

Not sure it makes me want to run out and buy a Sprite though!

Painting the house . . .

We are suppose to be on vacation these 2 weeks but it's the only time we could really get this done. Painting the outside of the house is a big project, but since we are more of the do-it-yourselfer types it's the more affordable way to go. We ordered all of our paint from a local Sherwin Williams store. They helped us figure out how much paint we needed, they also sold us some funky gadget that has the tape already on the paper for covering windows, trim etc. for overspray and of course the "free" paint stir sticks. So hubby was on a mission yesterday taking down all of the light fixtures, doorbell, and covering every window in plastic. The inside of our house right now feels completely claustraphobic . . there is only one door we can escape out from that doesn't tear paper that has been carefully taped in place. Today begins the spraying . . Dale all dressed like the Intel man in his white suit and mask will start spraying as I give needed supervision . . . and he gives me dirty looks, ha!. Our yard looks like a complete disaster with everything moved out away from the house . . and it's driving us both crazy . . so the sooner this gets finished the better. Tomorrow we will start on the trim. Keeping everything the same colors as they were before, I wasn't ready to make a big change this time around. When I compare what our neighbor paid to have his house painted professionaly last week $4000.00 . yikes!! to our bill for the paint/supplies and sprayer rental $550.00. Even if it does take a couple days longer to do . . . I guess that's just the HDTV in us!!

Fun with the grandsons this summer! . . .

Grama has been enjoying some quality time with the grandsons since summer arrived. A couple weekends ago we went camping at Barview with Chad, Nicole, Lucas & Andy. Weather was not the greatest, except we did have Saturday that we managed to stay dry and spend some time on the beach and in Rockaway. Lucas LOVES to camp and enjoys being outside all day long. He especially likes to ride his little quad around and eat yummy camping food. We have noticed that he has a crush on Andy's girlfriend "SAREWAH" (aka Sarah) and enjoyed being tossed in the air until he nearly wore everybody out. Grama especially enjoyed the snuggles by the campfire when he was getting real tired at night.

Brayden came to stay with Grandma for the day on Friday. We had lots of fun playing, going shopping at Target and we made a stop at McDonalds where he ate his lunch that mom prepared (absolutely loves strawberries!), plus he got to nibble on Grandma's chicken nuggets which he loved. Then it was out to the play structure to climb on the slide and he was totally facinated watching all of the kids.

Pretty good summer so far!

So he went and did it . . .

What's a Mom to do? In conspiracy with his father to boot!. . now HE wants one again too. He bought himself a motorcycle. What is it with boys and motorcycles anyway?? "Hey Mom . . you guys gonna be home this weekend?" . . "Yeah" . . "Well, I thought I might come by and show you something" . . "OK, we will be here" . . . So in he pulls, with a chopper. It does look nice and all, it sounds very loud and rumbles like a Harley but it's a Honda. He is grinning ear to ear . . but Mom is not. I don't like motorcycles . . they are way too scary. Dale road a Honda for a number of years that belonged to my brother Phil . . I went on maybe 2 rides the entire time he owned it. One time around the block, the other when he tried to take me out to Hagg Lake on it and I squeezed his middle so tight that he had fingerprint bruises, we turned around 1/2 way there. And apparently, I lean the wrong way . . you are suppose to lean with the bike . . not the other way in an effort to save your life. So I am a motorcycle passenger failure . . which is perfectly fine with me. Dale says, "You should be proud of him he took the motorcycle safety class that he didn't have to take, it's going to be cheaper on insurance and gas than his truck was, it will be fine just quit worrying." Aaarrrghhh . . . Easier said than done you co-conspirator! boys!!