Fun Filled Summer
We’ve been SO busy this summer. Work, kids, events, etc.
August 10th we took Kayla, Katherine, Kevin, and one of Kayla/Katherine’s friends to Rockfest. That was fun. It’s been years since I’ve been to a rock concert and it was their first one.
August 21st Jack and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We spent it in Newport, Oregon this year. We drove down late Friday night (the 19th) after I got off work, and came back Monday (22nd). Friday night we had a late dinner after we arrived in Newport in one of the only restaurants open all night. It was called the Apple Peddlar. Awful food. Awful service. But we were tired and the food was edible at least. The highlight was a Newport, Oregon restaurant publication at our table. We browsed other restaurant ads and found a few ads for local shops. One, called The Sword Shop, advertised they had swords, Lord of the Rings stuff, and… “Copper Twirly Things”. Jack and I got a good laugh out of that. What is a copper twirly thing?? We had to find out. Unfortunately, we left the publication at the restaurant and promptly forgot the name of the shop.
Saturday was spent on the historical bayfront where we visited the Undersea Gardens, The Wax Works, and Ripley?s Believe It or Not!. We also browsed the many local shops. And of course at each shop we asked if they were the ones whom (who?) advertised having “Copper Twirly Things”. Most shop owners/workers looked at us like we were nuts. No matter. By this point it was our mission to find one!
We finished the night with a great dinner at Georgie’s Beachside Grill where the food was superb and the service was awesome.
Sunday we went out on the Oregon Rocket. That was a blast! From the website:
The Oregon Rocket is a 27-foot Rigid-Hull Inflatable (RHIB) – the ultimate search for sea life, scenery and speed on Oregon’s central coast! With seating for 16, the ride features goggles and a warm floatation suit (sizes S-XL) that keep you comfortable while zipping along at 45 miles per hour. Get ready for a Fast, Fun Adventure Ride!!
It turned out we were the only ones not part of the Sea Scout Troop that went out with us that day. But it was all good. The captain singled me out a lot for some reason to tease and ask questions. He knew the Sea Scout Troop (local group) so I guess he had to pick on someone new, hehe. 
From there we went across the bridge to the Oregon Aquarium and visited Aquarium Village. Aquarium village is a neat idea. It’s an old storage facility turned into shops. Adorable shops! But half of them were closed and/or just moving in. There weren’t many people there so it seems like it hasn’t caught on yet. But.. it was here that we found, COPPER TWIRLY THINGS! We bought one of course.
Monday we drove a leisurely pace up Highway 101 all the way up to Astoria, then across the scary bridge to take the Washington side home. Such a beautiful drive! We stopped at a few antique shops along the way where I finally found strawberry themed items to add to my kitchen. Did you know it’s really hard to find kitchen items with strawberries on them? Everything is blueberries, grapes, cherries, or apples. Hmph.
Once back in Vancouver, it was a mad dash to fetch the kids from my sister’s house, then get Jack’s kids from their mom so we could begin their last summer visit. Jack has this week off and is spending each day doing something fun with all the kids. (cont.) Read more
Campaign for Real Beauty
I read an article today about Dove’s new campaign for beauty: Campaign for Real Beauty and it actually brought tears to my eyes. It’s about time!!
The billboards they have out show the average every day woman. Not supermodels. They are gorgeous and I love this concept. I hope more companies catch on and realize that woman need to know that beauty comes in all shapes and sizes. They need to stop torturing themselves trying to look like something that doesn’t even exist. Dove is donating a $1.00 for everyone who signs their pledge book to the uniquely ME program.
I signed it. You should too.
Crazy Day
We had a rather freaky incident happen yesterday. You all know that our neighborhood is quiet and mellow, except for the house across the street from us.
Some of you have even witnessed the fights that go on over there. Up until yesterday I felt bad that Crystal (the 13 year old daughter) has to live in such a dysfunctional household but kept my nose out of their business.
So, yesterday we were in Lisa’s driveway on the corner (which would be directly next door to Crystal’s.) Lisa’s very pregnant and was washing her car. We walked over to ask when she’s due and to find out who she used to drop some trees on her property. (We need to drop one.) While we were chatting, we started hearing screaming coming from Crystal’s house. We stopped talking and all looked, then looked back at each other and rolled our eyes. Here we go again. Read more
Blah blah blah blog
I know I suck at keeping this thing up. I always think about writing here and think of things to post all the time. Unfortunately, I’m usually nowhere near a computer at those times and by the time I am, I’ve lost the motivation to post whatever it was.
The problem is…
We Painted!
Melissa, Kevin, and Casey were in Eastern Oregon with my mom and sister & brother-in-law and their kids last week. (Jack an I couldn’t go since we took a week off in Feb for Hawaii). So we figured that would be the perfect time to paint Melissa’s room. Her room is the only room we know exactly how we were decorating (with her input of course). Everything else is still up in the air.
99% of the rooms in this house are painted a really cheap … and I’m not kidding when I say CHEAP … white paint. It has no gloss, no depth, and absorbs everything (spills, fingerprints, etc, and you can’t wash it, cept ever-so-gently or the paint falls off). It’s almost like primer.. and Jack suspects it may BE primer but I don’t think so. I think it’s just the cheapest white paint on the planet. It’s just awful.
We painted Sissa’s room a light lavendar. In fact it was called “Simply Lavendar”. She has a butterfly bedspread and I made a swag valance out of some butterfly material I bought a few years ago. We also applied butterfly wallies. We were up till 1 am painting/decorating a few nights last week, trying to be meticulous since we’d never done it before. 
We ended up not painting the closet due to the complicated organizer in there that we didn’t want to mess with taking out. Maybe another time. We still have a little paint left over.
I wish I had taken before/after pictures but I didn’t think about the before till we were putting the second coat of paint on.
The best part is Melissa didn’t know we are doing this. We talked about how we were going to decorate with her, but not when or even IF it would really happen. Her draw dropped when she first walked into the room when she got home. Then a huge grin followed. She loves it!
Next project for her room: Restore and refinish her dresser (that used to be mine when I was her age.)
Pictures:
