Boys Will Be Boys

Cody's buddy came over for a play day. After spending hours playing with their Nerf guns (and shooting at everything from Jason's younger siblings at the park, to ambushing poor little ol' me!) they decided to move onto more exciting adventures.

The grabbed Cody's old wagon, his crutches from last year (to use as oars), and a pillow to sit on. And for the appearance of safety, they both donned bike helmets. Their plan? To ride the wagon off the side of the deck. Why? Uh, why do boys do anything?



They quickly determined that they couldn't steer the wagon and get it moving. I was then enlisted to act as the motor by pushing them off the deck (see what kind of mom I am?) Even that didn't work so well when they realized that with BOTH of their lead butts in the wagon they couldn't steer it properly. I was quickly fired from my job as Official Pusher and re-hired as the Official Photographer For Posterity while they took turns pushing each other off the deck.

Jason, um, "flying" off the deck.

Cody doing the same.

At first they were disappointed that they didn't soar off the deck like they had envisioned, but they had tons of fun trying different take-off speeds and angles of trajectory. And best of all, nobody needed stitches.

I'm sure next time they'll want to parachute off the roof using sheets.

Keller Fountain

I put together a field trip for our homeschool group to the local children's theater yesterday. We saw "Ghosts of Treasure Island" - a very entertaining adaptation of the book "Treasure Island" by Robert Louis Stevenson.

As much as the kids loved the play, their favorite part of the day came afterwards. Accross the street form the auditorium is Keller Fountain. Even with the dreary weather, the kids had a ball clamoring all around the fountain.

Cody and Jarren at the top of the fountain.

Caleb, Cody, and Jaci behind one of the waterfalls.

My handsome little man!

Every Day is Earth Day...

...although today is the official date. Even my post is green today! We went to the Earth Day celebration in the neighboring town and brought home a bunch of stuff. They were giving out free bike helmets (not sure what that has to do with Earth Day, but we needed new ones, so there you go), free native plants, free trees, and free organic food samples. I like "free", can you tell?

They also had some native snakes there that we got to touch (yes, me too - I love snakes ;) and a Northern Spotted Owl and Great Horned Owl. The real reason we went, though, was for the composters that they were selling.

(You'll have to use your imaginations to picture my 2 new composters here. Apparently Blogger is having a technical issue, and after spending 30 minutes trying to get the photo uploaded, I gave up. Topsy-techie, where are you when I need you??)

We have 2 compost piles in our back yard with tarps over them - not very neat or pretty. In honor of Earth Day, the city was selling the normally $80 composters for $35. We brought them home and Mike found a spot for them by our new garden. Which still hasn't been planted. Oh, we have the seeds, the time, and the inclination. We just don't have the weather. After the B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L 85 degree weather we had when we built the new beds, we've now been struck with snow, several massive hail storms, and temperatures down into the mid 30's at night. This is spring, right? I mean, maybe it's the fact that we've spent the last 10 years living in the southwest, but I don't remember spring being this schizophrenic.

Since we're "greenies" anyway, I wanted to include some links to some cool ways that everyone can become a little greener.

Here's an article about a company that plants a tree for every cell phone donated:
http://earth911.org/blog/2008/04/21/donate-cell-phones-to-plant-trees/

Here's my favorite footprint calculator (it's a UK version)
http://independent.footprint.wwf.org.uk/

Here's an Amercian one:

http://www.nature.org/initiatives/climatechange/calculator/

I'm going to end this little post with the following video. A homeschooling friend of mine sent me a YouTube link for a video an Oregon teacher did about global warming. So far it's been viewed over 3.8 million times.

6 Unimportant Things About Me

OK, Lori over at http://not-so-superwoman.blogspot.com/ had this up and tagged everyone with it. And since we mutually stalk each others blogs, I knew that she'd know if I did it or not ;P And since I'm all about sharing the love, I'm now tagging everyone who reads it here (you can all blame Lori!) Just leave a little note saying that you did one on your blog, so I can check out your list.

So here are 6 Unimportant Things About Me:

1. I have not been able to get into any fiction book since I had Cody (12 1/2 year ago). I used to be the queen of horror fiction - Stephen King, Brian Lumley, Dean Koontz, etc. I would go through several books a week (and most of those I read multiple times). Something must have happened to my brain, because ever since I had the little booger I can only get into non-fiction books. If I'm not learning something, I'm not interested.

2. I occasionally become obsessed with a sci-fi show. It started early with Star Wars. I could tell you how many times I've seen it, but you'd wonder how I ever managed to get married, have a kid, and get a life ;) My next big obsession was X-Files, followed by Buffy, Firefly, and now Stargate - Atlantis. They're working on season 5 of SGA right now, I check daily on the Whedonesque blog for all the happenings in the Whedon-verse (of which there are many), and the new X-Files movie is coming out later this year. I'm a happy girl ;)

3. I always have bumper stickers in my back window, but I tape them up so that I can change them whenever I want. My current ones are: A picture of Pres. Bush that says: some things were never meant to be recycled. A Firefly one that says Real Sci-Fi Fans Wear Browncoats, and one that says My Karma Ran Over Your Dogma.

4. Cody and I are taking a yoga class together. So for 3 hours a week, we are out yoga'd by a roomfull of people who are 30 - 40 years older than I am! But we love it and are becoming very bendy ;)

5. I like it completely dark in the bedroom when I go to sleep at night, and quiet except for natural sounds (crickets, rain, etc.) And since Mike goes to bed earlier than I do, I love to snuggle up to him and suck up his body heat!

6. If I'm almost home and a song comes on the radio that I love, I'll drive around the block so that I can finish the song. If a song comes on that Cody loves, he'll ask me to keep driving till it's over.

So there you go. Six random, unimportant facts about me. Your turn!

Our New Garden

For years I've dreamed of having a garden. It's not that I haven't had the opportunity or space, I've just never gotten around to it. Never even had a tomato plant. Oh sure, I've perused catalogs, garden centers and nurseries - I've even tried growing strawberries a time or two. But "harvesting" 3 strawberries off of 9 plants just didn't seem worth it. This time, we vowed it would be different.

We've spent the last few months perusing garden catalogs, picking and choosing just what we wanted to go into our new garden. We'd hoped to get it put in before now, but have been plagued with weeks of bad weather. Our patience finally payed off - today it was sunny and 85 degrees - which seems odd as it was snowing here a week ago.

Hubby got up at some ungodly hour this morning to head to Home Depot (OK, it was 7:45 - but that's just wrong on a Saturday!) Cody and I were still in bed when he got back - but not for long! We all headed outside and started moving pavers, sawing, and screwing (with a drill! Get your mind outta the gutter).

We started by moving all of the paving stones that were where we wanted to put the beds. Cody and I moved the smaller ones, and Mike muscled the bigger ones out of the way.

Next, Mike started putting the beds together. We'd decided on raised beds for several reasons. 1. The previous owner's were known around the neighborhood for putting massive amounts of chemicals in the yard. We're really big on organic produce, so it was important that we knew what kind of soil our food was growing in. 2. We have a shorter growing season here, and the soil in raised beds warms faster and helps extend the growing season. 3. No double digging - do I really need to explain why I didn't want to have to do this?? 4. Really easy to rotate crops. So there you go.

After getting the beds positioned where we wanted, came the fun part of filling them. There's a nursery not too far from us that has an organic 4 part mixture for raised beds, and we ended up with 1 1/2 yards of it (with some left over). Cody and Mike took turns wheeling it back to the beds, while I spread it out.

The finished product! Mike says they look like 8 foot coffins, but given my love for cemeteries, that doesn't seem too bad. Now comes the fun part of filling them with fruits and veggies. I'm just wondering if I've gotten in over my head. Generally speaking, plants have to have a strong will to live to survive at our house. And just to prove my point....

This is a picture I took today of a Hyacinth blooming....in a box. I got these bulbs last fall and never got around to planting them (until today *blush*). They've just been sitting in the box I got them in outside my back door. Bless the hardy little boogers, they bloomed anyway - without any soil even.

So pray for my fruits and veggies. They're gonna need it!

They're Ba-ack!

Capistrano has it's Swallows to announce the arrival of Spring - we have Mike and Carol.

This mating pair of Mallards arrived last spring, several weeks after we moved in. After the first week, Cody named them (as he does all of the regular visitors to the yard). They showed up every day. This went over well with everyone but the dog, who apparently has some kind of fear of ducks. Not sure where it comes from, because as far as I know these are the only ducks she's ever seen, and they couldn't care less about her.

Anyway, came they did, like clockwork every evening around dinner time. Honestly, it didn't matter what time we ate, but that's when they'd show up. Quacking incessantly. If I was outside grilling, they swoop down and Carol would waddle right over to me. Just me - she wouldn't go near anybody else. Hubby started calling me "The Duck Whisperer." It got to the point that if I didn't go outside and acknowledge her presence, she'd come and peck on the sliding the door. You can imagine how well that went over with the dog!

So last night Cody and I were watching TV and heard this loud quacking sound. At first we thought it was on the program we were watching, but we soon realized it was coming from outside. Mike and Carol had returned. They stayed for about 2 hours before flying off. The funny thing is - our pond is nearly empty! It's a massive thing, and it turned out to be leaking, so after several patch attempts last summer we drained it. The only water in it now is about a foot of rainwater that has collected in the deepest part. They don't seem to mind, though.

Remembering Du'a Khalil

I first read about Du'a Khalil last year after Joss Whedon posted about her murder on Whedonesque. The "honor killing" of this Kurdish teenager was perpetrated by a large group of men including her uncle and several close male family members, witnessed by hundreds including police (who did nothing), filmed via cell phones and uploaded onto the internet (you can view it on CNN or YouTube websites. I couldn't watch it). Her crime? She fell in love with a local shopkeeper. Today marks the one year anniversery of her killing, and the release of "Nothing but Red" - an anthology inspired by Joss's post about it, with proceeds going to Equality Now http://www.equalitynow.org/english/index.html

For those of you not familiar with Joss Whedon or Equality Now, watch this:


Every year, Browncoats (that would be Firefly fans for the uninitiated ;) hold charity screening of the movie Serenity on or near Joss's birthday, with the proceeds going to Equality Now. And yes, we've attended them all! Over $160,000 has been raised since 2006 - not bad for fans of a TV show that didn't even last 1 season! If you're interested in finding a 2008 screening near you, check the official website for Can't Stop the Serenity: http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/

Back to the reason for the post:

The website "International Campaign to Stop Honor Killings" http://www.stophonourkillings.com/ is asking that everyone use April 7 as a day to remember all of those who have been victims of so-called "honor killings."

Human Rights Watch defines "honor killings" as follows:
Honor crimes are acts of violence, usually murder, committed by male family members against female family members, who are held to have brought dishonor upon the family. A woman can be targeted by (individuals within) her family for a variety of reasons, including: refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being the victim of a sexual assault, seeking a divorce — even from an abusive husband — or (allegedly) committing adultery. The mere perception that a woman has behaved in a way that "dishonors" her family is sufficient to trigger an attack on her life.

According to the UN, there are approx. 5,000 girls and women who are killed every year in honor killings. That's 5,000 too many. So if you are a woman or know a woman (wink), I urge you to get involved. Visit the website. Write a letter. Donate $10. Whatever you can do.

Rock Show Fun

Every year around Easter, the Mt. Hood Rock Club hosts a huge rock show at a local college. Besides having a large variety of rocks, minerals, and fossils, they also put on an Easter (Thunder-) Egg and Rock hunt for kids 12 and under.

Cody loved it last year, and was eagerly awaiting this year's hunt. He has all of his past finds lining the windowsill in his room. We arrived early yesterday and explored some of the booths. One booth was giving away fossils to kids, and Cody spent some time choosing just the right one. We made our way outside, and found some friends of ours who were there. The kids lined up in the rain, waiting for their turn to go.

This year they decided to change the location for the hunt - what can only be described as a grassy pit that abutted the tennis court fencing. Can you guess what happened when they yelled "Go!" and the throng of children threw themselves down the hill? Yep, kids went down and then were trampled beneath the rows of kids behind them. Luckily no one was hurt and they managed to pick themselves up and scramble off to find some loot.

After the hunt, we went back inside and ran into 5 people who were in Cody's play, and 3 families from our homeschool group. It just amazes me that after living here for only a year, we'd run into that many people that we knew! Cody found a few more treasures he couldn't pass up, and then were headed back home.

Cody, Zoe and his treasures

Calling all Browncoats

Operation Full Burn is tonight (April 5) at 8 p.m EST. For those not in the know, the moderator over at the Universal/Serenity message board is asking that all Firefly/Serenity fans come to the boards at the same time to show Universal just how big our 'verse is, and that it would be in their interests to green-light a shiny sequal.

http://boards.nbcuni.com/universalHD/index.php?showtopic=947

Pavlov's dog

I have of a love affair with Trader Joe's Spicy Thai Style Pasta Salad with chicken. This isn't a casual fling, it's been going on for at least 3 years. When they quit carrying it in January I nearly cried, and spent the next several weeks lamenting my loss. A few weeks back we went into the store, and there it was perched on it's little refrigerated shelf. I YELLED accross the produce dept. to my hubby "They have it again!!" Seriously, I got so excited you'd have thought I just found a gold brick lying on the ground.

OK, I told you that little bit so that you'd understand this next bit. As much as I love the salad, I think Zoe may love it more. You see, Zoe gets all of the chicken in the salad (since meat makes me ill). So we have a ritual: after every trip to Trader Joe's (twice a month) I put the perishables away, give Zoe the chicken and then eat my pasta salad.

As soon as I come in the door with those paper bags, she's on my heels and stands there staring at me. Waiting. And drooling (really - it actually drips onto the floor!) She knows what's coming. The funny thing is, she doesn't do this when I come home with bags from any other grocery store. Just Trader Joe's.