Friday and the Waterslides

The kids and I are going to the waterslides in Redding today. It's a delayed birthday party celebration for Bay. I'm excited becasue I've never been to any sort of waterslide park before.

Earlier this week, I got to spend some time with my extended family. Here are some photos of our trip to the pool.

My nephew, Hayden is so cute. Cute just isn't a big enough word to describe how adorable he is.

They did some work on the area around the pool this Summer. They moved the fences back and added a mixture of trees, flowers, some new umbrellas. It looks nice and will look even better when things grown in a bit thicker. Another thing they did was pull out the bushes along the workout room and replace them. I bet that was a job. They were as thick as trees.


The picture here shows Casey, Ashlee, Brad, Sarah, Hayden, and Shawna, my sister-in-law. Look how brown Sarah looks. That kid, she has my Grandpa's skin for sure.

I wish that they would have put a hot tub in when they did the remodel. I would love to sit in there in the Winter time.

Ten Things I Hate About You is on. Oh, that's sad. Heath Ledger. I remember when I saw him in A Knight's Tale and then I went out and looked for any other movie he was in. (I did the same after watching the first Spider-Man. Tobey Maguire is my favorite actor.) There's a guy on an FX show that looks a lot like Heath Ledger. Has anyone noticed that.

Okay, I have to get going. I have to fit the last of my work in and get Max ready before we take off for the slides.

If you like DKNY's Be Delicious, I'm giving a couple of bottles away at Splendicity.

Oops, one last shot of Hayden splashing. So darn cute!

Back On Track

When times get stressful, I find that I have to set my goals aside. I get into that head-down, power-through frame of mind.

Right now, all I can do to make it through another day. Oh, boy. That sounds dramatic, but some of the challenges going on right now are overwhelming me. It's time to give myself a mental shake or face-slap. I need to get it together.

I really dislike when I am not moving forward, when all my effort goes into merely keeping my head above water. Survival, that is all I've been handling.

And yeah, maybe there should be some sort of pride in that, in the survival, but I am capable of more, so that's what I am going to do. I'm going to do more. Be more. It's time to make a new list. Time to get back on track.

Ruby Tuesday - Shawna's Party

Happy Ruby Tuesday! Here are some "ruby" photos from my sister-in-law, Shawna's birthday party. I'll share more photos later in a non-ruby post.

Here's Brandon's Caprese Salad. I have a recipe for the salad here. It's super easy - basically tomatoes, olive oil, basil, salt and pepper. Yum. Here is my gorgeous mom. Hi Mom!

And Hayden, my nephew. Look at that hair. It was sort of floating on the breeze. He is so cute.

See, what I mean? Look at that grin. Adorable.

We had a lot of fun at Shawna's party. She is a way better hostess than I will ever be. She does lots of fancy finger foods and cupcakes with edible glitter. She made sangria and appletinis. Yum.

For more Ruby Tuesday photos, check out The Work of The Poet.

Good Weekend That Was Not a Weekend

My good friend, Jackie, and her kids just spent some time with us. Sarah keeps starting to say, "It was a great weekend," but it wasn't a weekend. Felt like it though - a wonderful, fun, beginning of the week break with friends.

While they were here, Jackie and I checked out some apartments. It's possible that they might end up here, in our apartments (crossing my fingers) which would add an extra element of fun to Wednesday night TV viewing with Leah. Leah and Jackie are friends, too, in fact Leah was here last night visiting with us.

Moving is a big thing to think about and I don't envy all the work that is ahead for Jackie's family. We can help them when they get here, with the moving, the unpacking, dinner, whatever they need, but everything that comes before - looking for a new job, a new place, planning, packing, loading - so not fun.
The first day Jackie was here, she was without kids. We grabbed my kids and headed to the creek. Yay. That's the best way to start out a visit. Right? When we got home, I suggested we jump into the pool, so rinse out our creek-y suits. Unfortunately, the pool was housing a big poo, so yuck, we got out and reported it to the manager. Yuck, yuck, yuck.

The creek might be full of fish and mossiness, but it always feels cleaner than the pool to me because the water is moving. And it's prettier.

Well, that's my update. I hope that you enjoyed your holiday weekend and beyond.......

Drive-by Greeting

It's late or very early, depending on your point of view. I haven't been writing here as much as I'd like. I'm off to bed now. Happy Saturday to you!

Michelle Projects

It's late or maybe it's early......but I haven't written for a few days and I'm trying to get back on track.

See the plant below? I just about killed it. I've had it for years, ever since it was housed in a little 4 inch pot. These days it's almost 4 ft tall and it's overgrown the pot it lives in. The roots have filed through the bottom of the pot and into the ground. I noticed it was looking droopy, so I watered it again. Still drooped.

Finally, I noticed that the droopiness was from over-watering. I punched some holes in the plastic pot and some really stinky water drained out. Mom looked at it with me and said that I needed to cut it back. I plan to dig it out of the ground, but for now it's cut back and no longer resembles the photo below. Instead, it looks like pot full of sticks.

I was talking to my boyfriend about my blogs. He said that he spent an hour and a half clicking "back" over at Relationships, on Blisstree. He told me that he read some, too, and that he liked them. The reason he did it, the back-clicking, was to find a post that someone was leaving comments on. It's a long story and one that I no longer want to spend any time on - it was negativity and I'm not going to worry about it any longer - but I did appreciate that Mark went looking for it.

When I first started talking to him he told me that he made a list or notes on me. Sometimes he will say, I have some things I want to talk to you about and there's another list - this time topics that he wants to cover or questions that he wants answers to. I like that he takes the time to take care of these Michelle Projects.



I am really tired and I need to get to bed now. I wish you a wonderful day/night.

Feeling Grumpy

I've been craving Nutella sandwiches lately. I love wheat bread, but the Nutella sandwiches need to be on white bread, best if it's Potato bread. They taste a bit like a frosted donut sandwich. I think Ashlee is a new fan of Nutella.

I wish I had something fun to look forward to today. Instead I've got work and later I'm digging out a plant and replanting it. I've got a bill to drop off across town. I'm going to help Sarah with her room. Woohoo, the anticipation is making me feel a bit giddy........ Wow, where did the sarcasm come from? I am feeling a little bit grumpy. Darn.

I'm going to kick the bad attitude. There's no room for negativity in a Saturday. Maybe Mom will watch Buddy and I get get to the creek with Sarah.