Birthday Card

I joined a card swap this past week.  A bunch of us gals are going to get together to swap cards we make.  Every month we are going to get together to swap. This month's theme is Birthday.  This is what I made this last weekend.

It's just a plain white card, purple cardstock cut a little smaller than the card to show a white border, layered with a smaller striped paper.  Two different purple cardstock using the Cricut cut out the stars and birthday blessing saying.  Layered together to make this lovely card!  I need to make a few extra too, birthday season in our family is coming up!  I can't wait to make more!

Do you like to make cards?

Old TV & Teenagers!

It's Wednesday!  Happy hump day!  We're halfway thru the week!  Yay!  It's also scout night for us.  Today is kind of humid along with the hot heat, mid 80's, maybe hotter.  I have almost no energy.  I'm feeling blah.  Lot's has been happening.  I've been running around the last few days looking for chest high waders in a shoe size 13 that doesn't exist on store shelves.  Walmart stocks up to size 12, but not bigger.  Wish I found this out a few stores ago!  The hubby told the teenagers if they fixed the BIG TV that has been in a box since December last year they could have it as theirs.  The same time it got boxed up I went online to Google the symptoms and found one of two diagnoses that could be wrong with it.  A TV place in town said it could be a dust problem or a panel.  They claimed the panel could cost about 600 bucks and said just to replace it.  I found one for 89 plus shipping.  Anyways my hubby just wanted to get rid of it.  He didn't want me touching it and trying to dust it out, especially the fan.  For some reason he decided to let the kids.  They dusted it, wiped it down and guess what??!!!  It works again!!!  Perfect picture!  Definitely wasn't a panel problem, but a dust problem!  I'm kind of mad he wouldn't let me open it up and dust it out myself last year.  Oh well.  It's now the kids' TV for their game room!  Last night we bought a new entertainment center for it.  My oldest has spent all day putting it together.  I'll post pictures of it soon as the room gets cleaned up.  We took the old boxy TV that quit working and the old entertainment center to the thrift store. (Yes if they can't get the TV working they will take it to the recycling center at the dump for it and they get recycling credit!)

Today after he finished building it I applied for school.  I hope this application goes thru.  I'm excited and nervous all at the same time.  I'll keep you posted!

I guess what I am trying to say is don't forget to dust!  If you dust your TV's will last longer!

What's your least favorite chore to do at home?

Friday Funny!

My daughter told me this last week that I have spider webs up my nose holes (aka nostrils). I was kind of surprised so I asked her back if she could see any spiders in there too.  She said no but I had boogies!

My youngest knew he was in big trouble.  He told me when I get mad at him I just need to love him instead of being mad.  He was giving me hugs all day telling me he was sorry!

My two older boys went off to scout camp this last week.  One went to Mount Hood in Oregon and the other went somewhere in the Cascade Mountain range in Washington.  I can't wait to share pictures they took!  Hopefully they come out!

Have an awesome weekend!  I know some are going back to school soon, East Coast and others like us on the West Coast still have another 34 days till school starts!  My youngest woke me up this morning asking if it's September yet, hence the start of the countdown to the end of summer!

Pink Salmon

We cooked the Pink Salmon the other day!  I finally have pictures to share with you!

This is going to be dinner!  My daughter kept asking 'Do I like Pink Salmon'? We kept telling her what's not to like about her favorite color!

Recipe for the marinade as follows:

3 cups of Teriyaki Soy Sauce
1 can of pineapple
1 small to medium Walla Walla Onion
1 cup of Dark Brown Sugar

I mixed all of this in our Ninja Blender except about half of the pineapple.  Drain the juice in the blender and dump in about half the pineapple.  Pulse the blender until marinade is not as chunky but let there be some chunks in it.  I guess what I am trying to say is don't pulse it till it liquefies!  I let the fish marinade for about 2 hours in a glass dish with tin foil over the top in the fridge.  When you preheat the oven to 425 degrees take the fish out and put on your tin foil ready pan.  Soak up any extra juice.  This will prevent the house from smoking up!  Add the rest of the pineapple to the top of your salmon.  Cook for about 20 minutes (every oven varies).  Change the oven to broil and cook for 3-5 minutes.  This is what it should look like!!

Perfect, moist, flaky fish! White rice and green beans went perfect with this!  My daughter couldn't decide what she liked better the rice or salmon!  (She's a rice lover!)  She would take a big forkful of one and then switch to the other!  It was funny to watch her eat!  Last time we had salmon she wouldn't touch it for the life of her!

We still have this to cook up too!  This is the King Salmon; this ended up being the biggest fish caught Sunday the 28th on the trip!  Go hunny buns!  He's already talking about his next trip with just a few buddies from work.


How do you like to cook your salmon?

Fishing Trip

My hubby went fishing all day yesterday.  He left at 1:40 in the morning and got home about 11:30 at night.  Work rented out a charter boat.  No this wasn't free.  He paid good money to go.  I can't wait to sink my teeth into this salmon he got.  I'm drooling just thinking about it!  He took pictures.

Just leaving for the sea.  They are in Wesport Washington USA leaving for the Pacific Ocean.

They got their poles all ready to go!

There were lots of boats in the water!

The water was really choppy and most of the guys on deck got sick & spent time next to the side of the boat hurling into the water!  Makes me sea sick just thinking about it.

Finally caught his first fish just before the 11 o'clock hour rolled in.

Everyone is catching fish!!!

Even a few of these little ones were caught!

AND Here is the Captain of the boat! Thanks dude for getting this crew there & back safe and sound!  What a day the hubby had!  All these pictures were taken by him the hubby.  He said it was an expensive trip but it's worth the experience at least once!  Now I need to go cruise Pintrest for some awesome salmon recipes!

What is your favorite fish and how do you like to cook it?

Mount Rainier & Puyallup River

My husband had a day off recently.  He wasn't quite ready to go home after we got his fishing license and then went out to eat. He turned the car the opposite way than home and started driving.  He was told of this town with a big sporting good store.  (It's not that big!)  He wanted to find it.  It was a cute little town, older place near the valley of Mount Rainier.  There was a fun park we stopped at to let the kids play.  It has these awesome trees. 

I love this line of trees.

This one reminds me of a tree in my grandparent's yard in Utah. (Their kids sold their home this past summer.)

These trees would make some awesome tree houses! At the park we saw this peek-a-boo view of Mount Rainier too.

I love seeing this mountain.  It's so relaxing; it also makes me grateful for all the man upstairs has given and done for me.  Okay, now onto the pictures of the river!

I love how the sunlight glistens on the water!  We stopped at the river to see if there could be a swimming hole to take the kids this summer. NOPE!

Way to deep to swim in even with a life jacket.

The water was way too choppy & swift for kids to swim in it. 

On our way back home my husband pulled off the road so we could take these pictures of Mount Rainier! 

Right after I snapped this picture my husband grabbed the cell phone and snapped the following picture.

He took a few of this same view, as we were standing on the sidewalk, on a bridge, over the river we just visited.  He almost dropped the camera (my cell phone) in the river twice.  My youngest looks at me and says, 'mom it's okay if daddy drops it, he'll have to earn money to buy you a new one.  I'll make sure he does'! What a love bug I've raised.

Oh this river is the Puyallup river that runs thru the small country town of Orting Washington USA.

All the pictures here are taken by me (except for the last picture of Mount Rainier, taken by my husband) with the Samsung Galaxy 4S cell phone.  I love this phone!  The camera is definitely the most used feature on the phone. (Yes, probably even more than talking and texting!)


Have you gone exploring with kids this summer as a family or by yourself?

Christmas In July Craft

I just wanted to share with you a craft I made this last week.  Christmas Nativity.

A fellow crafter in Florida is getting this one.  She loves snowman so I jazzed the backside up a bit for her.

This is silver vinyl on the back.  I hope she likes it!  I think Frosty needs a hat on him!

Here's the other one I have been finishing up painting today.

I used spray paint originally but it was not working out.  The hot sticky weather was keeping the spray paint from drying.  (I know nothing like back east or in the south!)  If you looked closely the wise men have the spray paint on the block and the donkey has a paint sample color from Walmart painted on it.  They are now covered with Teal Lake paint.  I am just waiting for them to dry so I can flip them over again and paint the second coat on.  Then I will peel off the vinyl and paint where the vinyl was.  It's a fun Christmas in July craft to make.  Fast and easy.

Have you made any Christmas In July crafts this month?