Camping

I have many memories of the family campground in central Oregon. We spent time there every summer with campfires and smores and hiking and making Aebleskiver (Danish pancakes, mmm) on the camp stove. I live a lot further away now but I hope to see it again this year. Only my oldest has ever been there and he was too young to remember. I want them to have these memories.



My pictures here are not great. This was my very first digital camera and I had only owned it for about 6 months. Needing new pictures is another good reason for me to go back there, though. As a very small child we spent most of our time across the river at the single cabin there, now long out of use. The main campground is the prefered part of our land to camp on for most of the extended family but I find a charm in the more beaten down cabin across the way. Stray hikers and kayakers from the campground up the river have thought it abandoned (it's not) and have stolen boards from it to fuel their campfires. Most squatters are at least respectful of the land and clean up after themselves but there are those few...



The views are amazing here and you can sit right along the river while you eat breakfast.



It was prettier when it was new (I was young enough to not remember this. I believe my mother took the last 2 photos) but it didn't have its charm yet.

Secret 2: My boy and the barbies

When my daughter turned 2 her grandma gave her a barbie for her birthday. It was almost scandalous that she didn't have one yet because a girl needs a barbie and as a mother I had been failing her. And my little Erin, my dear sweet baby... It scared the CRAP out of her. She wouldn't touch it and if it was placed anywhere near her for the next 6 months she would CRY!! This doll that looked like a person must surely come alive at night and chase little girls somewhat like Chucky and we all know how that went. So barbie was abandoned to the toy box until Erin could grow out of that one...

Until about 2 days later when I found my son playing with her. (For his own mental well-being as he gets older I won't say which son as I wouldn't want him teased. I'm not cruel.) My son LOVED to play with barbie. He would carry her around the house and take her in the car. Some friends were horrified that I was allowing my son to play with a doll, especially a barbie, and Dear FSM, what would this mean as he got older!?! To this I simply answered that I played with Tonka trucks and worms and I'm mostly a well adjusted female, albeit one who loves using tools. Gasp!

Now both of my boys prefer action figures and swords so that obviously went away and Erin now has a dollhouse with lots of barbies in a box beside it. But, yes, I'm the mother who let my son have barbies.

Secret 1: I was a smoker

Spudballoo recently finished up her 30 Secrets in 30 Days and I have to admit I'm tempted to try it. I think I can come up with 30 anyway. I've been weighing this all day because, while I can come up with LOTS of secrets, I wouldn't actually share most of those with, well, anyone. So here we go!

Secret 1: I used to be a smoker. I was 6. (6 years old, not a size 6 because if I wore a size 6 that wouldn't be a secret). And not candy cigs either. Both of my parents were smokers and my oldest sister as well (she was 18ish). My younger sister (age 5) and I wanted to know what was so cool about smoking. They all seemed to like it and wouldn't stop so it must be great, yes? I had even come home from school and given them a pretty great lecture about the health issues and they just laughed at me. So my little sis (Little-Little) and I devised a plan. One of us snatched a pack of cigarettes and the other grabbed lighters. We hid them in a band-aid tin and headed out to the back porch of the workshop because, well, if you're going to light something on fire then of course you're going to do it next to a building full of sawdust, right? Right.

So we sat down and each got out a cigarette. We grabbed the lighters and sucked in just like we had seen it done... Well, not quite like it was done but more how we thought it was done. Unfortunately we didn't realize that you aren't supposed to swallow smoke and we turned green and choked on them. I think there might have been crying involved. The upshot to all of this is that I never smoked again. The bad side is that we then got bored and turned to lighting bits of paper on fire and then blowing them out and that's what we actually got busted for later. Luckily, we did not burn down the house, the workshop or the forest we lived smack in the middle of (oh, yes, we were smart ones!...).

And in regards to the picture above: Did you know that candy cigarettes are still sold!?! I didn't think you could buy those anymore but obviously I was wrong as these were purchased quite recently. I was SURE they had been banned as being "marketed to children". As a child who was obviously suckered by that marketing I am very disappointed in our law makers.

More painting!

My house painting continues...

I can now say that ONE room is done as I finished the kitchen last night. Whew! Though, to be fair, I think it counts as 3 rooms since it includes the kitchen, dining, and family areas. What do you think?

The colors aren't quite coming out right in the pictures (the green you see on the kitchen bar is actually the color of all the green) and the kitchen yellow actually looks more like the dining room picture's yellow. But, it's pretty close. Here's a link to the before pictures.

Kitchen/bar area, mostly tidied up. I hope it's clear but the side walls and bar are green and the back wall in the kitchen is yellow (since the picture kind of makes one green wall on the left look very yellow, too).


Family room as seen from the kitchen. I really do need tie backs for the curtains but making a knot with them seems to work for now.


Dining room with a print of my mother's Joshua Tree National Park picture to add some oranges and reds. Suggestions on a tablecloth color?

Wordle

How fun! I found this on Spudballoo's blog and made a Wordle with my own website. This site will make a word cloud from any website you give it and the most used words will be the largest. Hmmm, do I really mention julochka that much? (I guess that means I have a blog crush.) You can play with all of the fonts and colors and try different arrangements of the words. Try it out!

As Spud pointed out you can find some great phrases in there when it's done.
'think like kids' ~ 'call sisters' ~ 'crap gap' (heehee)