A Hair Raising, Skin Scraping Sunday

Late Sunday afternoon our "good" friends Mike & Carrie called & invited us to go out on the boat with them for a little while (you'll understand later why they have playfully been relegated to "good" friends, I still love them I'm just now questioning whether they think they are named in my will). My initial reaction was to say no because that's what I do when something is outside my comfort zone. I have only been out on a boat once in my life & it was a party barge that my sedate, completely non-outdoorsy dad was in charge of & incidental it was his 1st time on the lake w/ a boat so we barely puttered. I'm fine with water, I just want to be able to see what's at the bottom(that means pool play only). Blame it on B rated 80's movies if you like but scary things exist where there is water you can't see through. So still I'm envisioning sitting on a boat in the middle of the lake doing nothing, how much fun can that be w/o a book right? NO we get out there & right off the bat they want me to put my kids in the lake, WHAT! So maybe I'm a bit uptight, who knew. After much prodding I actually lowered my body into the brackish water of Pat Mayse Lake, ick! I thought I had done good, but even after these past few years of friendship I still have yet to grasp the fact that Miss Carrie's new mission in life is to jar me out of my comfort zone, it seems to have become some sort of game. I will admit we were collectively quite proud of me for jumping that hurdle, but the best is yet to come. My dear children start begging to ride the tube, so J goes 1st as he has the most experience, which I didn't even know about (this is just the 1st of my parental shortcomings in this story). He looks like he is having a blast, so really how bad can it be? Next all 3 kids get on the tube & go for a ride which I was of course very nervous about, this was L's 1st tube ride & I just kept seeing her fly through the air w/o the greatest of ease if you know what I mean.

Regrettably I didn't get a pic of this because nervous nelly here couldn't take her eyes off the tube long enough to grab the camera.

Then it was A's turn & she had a blast, evidently they are quite the daredevils, who knew? Both my olders wanted wild rides &hung on for dear life, until J flipped the tube up in the air & went flying. Quite a site to see.

Then of course Miss L decided that she needed a solo ride which immediately send my poor Mama's heart into overdrive, but you have to remember at this point I myself had yet to experience this & had no idea what to expect. We took it really slow (she kept giving the slow down signal, even though we were at the slowest speed,good girl!), but still seemed to be having a blast. At least until the tube took off all the skin on her knees & elbows & reopened her scootering wounds from the weekend before. This girl is battle scarred, let me tell you!

So then comes my turn. How do you say no when all the kids have done it right? I'm actually trying to overcome fears & do new things so this seemed, for a moment, to be a great opportunity to do just that & the kids had so much fun. NO, within 5 short seconds I knew I had made the mistake of a lifetime, I was about to leave my children motherless. I did not know it at the time, but all of a sudden the lake was whitecapping, I had the roughest ride of everyone, great! Since going to the lake was last minute I had failed to take my mascara off before we left, 1st big mistake. Immediately I have black fire running from my eyes & I'm too terrified to let go & wipe it away. It was like being thrown onto a bull having never been taught how to bull ride, I kid you not. My body was flying off that tube like a fish on land & my second thought, after Dear God what have I gotten myself into, was do people with implants really do this?! I know, random right? I'm immediately screaming like a banshee (think Darby O'Gill & the Little People) but in staccato, eyy,eyy,eyy,eyy,eyy, broken each time my generous body slammed back down onto the tube. I'm sure the other lake goers all scrambled for their video cameras at this point. I fully expect to be the next big thing on youtube. Maybe a movie deal will come of this, stranger things have happened. Anywho..there were several minutes that had I not been too afraid to let go I would have simply jumped off & waited to be rescued. There is a signal that lets the driver, who I truly believe was reveling in my predicament, know that you've had enough, but that would necessitate letting go of the handles which I knew would leave me air born & take me straight to Jesus w/o passing go or collecting $200 so I just hung on for dear life & prayed! At the end of my harrowing ordeal, which goes through many other phases but would take a novella to describe I promptly asked "do you really do this for fun?!" Which of course elicited gales of laughter from the boat riders who had not just risked their neck I might add. My fingers had to be pried from the handles & my legs would not work so of course I fell into the lake, which further amused my fellow lakers. So I consider myself a survivor of a near death experience, I came away from this with a renewed relationship with Christ (no kidding, I know he brought me back from the brink of death on this day ), a renewed commitment to my kids (what kind of mother lets her kids do something for the 1st time w/o trying it out herself 1st?!) & a strong conviction that my "good friends" are truly unaware that they are NOT named in my will. We will rectify that immediately, I have no desire to be almost killed anytime in the near future. Thankfully no one from our boat picked up a camera, that's one thing I would NOT want captured on camera for all posterity!

The Experience, otherwise known as Farm Fresh Tomato Soup

Today I finally had a chance to do something amazing with all of the fresh tomatoes that my dear friend Rita keeps sending home with me. Doodle Bop & I LOVE tomato soup & she beat herself up pretty badly yesterday riding her scooter so I decided to whip up some feel good comfort food to help mend her bumps, bruises, scrapes & blisters (p.s. letting the kiddos ride scooter bare foot, NOT A GOOD IDEA!)
I decided to share this process, both the appetizing parts & the messy parts, VERY MESSY! This recipe is so unusual but tastes just like our favorite bakery's fresh tomato soup that it will certainly be a staple from now on. I love recipes that have a good base & can be adjusted depending on what you have on hand. How many times have you found an amazing recipe & have all but 2 or 3 of the ingredients on hand so it doesn't get made? For me, almost never, I change up everything using what's in my pantry & fridge to fill in the gaps. I hope you enjoy this soup as much as we have & don't let the "secret" ingredient scare you, you won't even know it's there but it's not the same w/o it. I also used the artichoke that we cut out of the flower bed at our Cannon Beach Vacation House & brought home with us, DELISH!


FARM FRESH CREAMY TOMATO SOUP

1. 3T butter ( I never use anything but real unsalted butter, salting is what they do to it to keep it on the shelf longer, YUCK!)
2. 1c. chopped onion (I used a Vidalia)
3. 1 steamed & chopped artichoke (here is where you can change things up, the original recipe called for 3 stalks of celery which I didn't have & I also added the rest of a jar of marinated artichoke hearts I had in the fridge)
4. 2 garlic cloves chopped
5. 1/4 c chopped fresh flat leaf parsley ( I used about 1T dried plus 1T dried basil)
6. 3 c. chopped fresh tomatoes (garden fresh is best but please use a good canned tomato over those tasteless grocery store imposters if you don't have access to the fresh variety.)
7. 15oz. can tomato sauce
8. *SECRET INGREDIENT* 3/4 c stong brewed coffee (YES COFFEE, don't leave it out)
9. 1/4 c. H2O
10. Salt & Pepper ( I use Kosher & fresh ground)
11. 1 tsp. sugar ( I didn't use it & it's still delish, you won't miss this part)
12. 1/3 c heavy cream ( I used half & half because it's what I had on hand & it was perfect)
13. 1/3 c chopped carrots

Melt the butter in a large stock pot & add the onion, garlic, carrots, celery & parsley. Cook slowly until the onions are transparent. Be careful not to let it burn or the garlic will be bitter. Add tomatoes, sauce, coffee, H2O, salt, pepper & sugar. Bring to a boil & simmer about 20 minutes. Pour the mixture into a blender in small batches & puree with short burst until it is completed blended.

*AUTHOR's NOTE* This is where the messy came in for me, I forgot to hold down the lid, not once but twice! So I covered my kitchen in tomato puree & scalded my face, hands & arms. Thank goodness for my friend Sharon who was present the last time I burned myself in the kitchen & told me to put mustard on it. I smelled like a corn dog & I'm sure looked like a hot mess covered in the thick yellow goop, but it did the trick. So lesson learned, please be careful & don't put too much in your blender & hold that lid down tight!!!*

Transfer back to the pot & add the cream, heat but don't boil. L ate hers w/ Italian cheese & I paired mine with a Tillamook cheddar melt fresh off the panini press.

Was it worth the mess?

OH, YEAH!

Coupons for Military Families Overseas

So if you know me you know I'm a huge couponer & coming from a military family I'm very passionate about how our veterans & currant military are treated & respected, SSSOOOO......... This was the perfect cause for me to pick up & I hope that you will jump on this bandwagon with me (promise it's worth it). Even if you don't want to go through the trouble of doing the coupon thing yourself you can still help out military families overseas who don't have access to coupons the way we do here in the states. The PXs honor manufacturors coupons up to 6 months after their experation date for military families. We all know that our troops don't get paid anything near what they deserve & although this won't make that up it is a small way for those of us whose lives & way of life they are fighting to protect can show a little appreciation. I used to only cut out the coupons that I would use but now I cut them ALL out (yes it takes a bit of time but think about this, the average deployment is 18 months so suck it up a bit :) The ones I will use I keep & all the rest I seperate into catagories & mail to one of the addresses that the coupon mom website provides. Please follow this link & take just a little bit of time to do something that will mean a lot to the families who are relocated all over this globe.   www.couponmom.com/military

Funky Finds....

www.funkyfinds.com/  If you haven't already heard of it there is an awesome new place to buy & sell your very own funky finds. Blossom Granny & I have both already set up shop & who can blame us at $1.99 for 7 months?!?! It's almost too good to be true. One of the biggest benefits is that it's no where near the volume of product on etsy which sounds like a minus but can really be a plus. Think of it, instead of searching through 5 bajillion (yes it's a word) pages of product to find the handful you're looking for, you can easily sift through the shops at funky finds & get what you want in a fraction of the time before you fall into that zombie like state that accompanies most internet searches. Not to diss etsy, I still have an etsy shop & love it, it's a great outlet for artsies across the globe, this is simply another great find that I'm sure will soar to etsy-like status before long so don't wait, don't dawdle, jump this funky finds train as quickly as possible before the introductory offers expire, you won't regret it!! It's the perfect new outlet for those of us who have a desire to sell but don't have a huge inventory to list. Follow me to the shops at funkyfinds.com!! See you there ;) Be sure to check out The Quirky Belle & Let Me Make You Smile!

On our way home from Oregon we drove down to San Francisco by way of Hoghway 101, amazing drive, but definitely slow & tedious. It took about 18 hrs to get from point A to point B but I'm glad we decided to do it because it's not a drive to be missed. We got to stop & take some pics in the Redwood forest & it's unbelieveable how giant these trees are. We spent the 4th of July at Fisherman's Wharf but first we had to take the train from Belmont into the city, quite an experience coming & going. Then we walked FOREVER!!!! (so much for listening to hotel employees). I knew it was going to be chilly but really, it was downright COLD! The Gap there was sold almost completely out of everything that could be considered cold weather clothes or layerable & so were most of the merchants which I think is saying something. We finally got to try that American classic, In & Out Burger, I loved it , the rest of the fam wasn't that impressed, but how do you impress people who eat their hamburgers either dry or with ketchup & pickles? The fireworks I'm sure were amazing but since it was so foggy you couldn't see but one out of every 5 or 6, there was a mass exodus of people after the first 5 min. us included. There was no way I was missing the train I had already paid for & it was quite a walk back, felt like 20 miles, was probably more like 4 or 5. I wish we had more time in the city so that we could see things like Coit Tower & take a trolley ride, but alas we were in a rush to make Holbrook Arizona, though now I have no idea why. It's just a blip on the map & no where to stop, our hotel room smelled like a kennel, no more pet friendly hotels for us. As we pulled into our drive at 3:30 a.m our travel odometer read 5005 miles, YIKES!

Last Day At Cannon Beach

This is our last day in what I deem PARADISE! I can't imagine a more perfect setting, I can well see why homes/land here are at such a premium, it would be well worth it if you could live this life everyday. I truly do not believe that this could become mundane. I am sure going to miss it here. I have eaten fudge like it's the last edible item on earth & I only have hours to live, but can you really blame me when you look at this? Dark chocolate coconut fudge from the Tillamook Creamery. That's 2 of my all time favorite substances mixed with tons of pure cream butter which is my 3rd favorite food and formed into a mass of luxurious indulgence, what could be better!

http://www.wavesofgrainbakery.com/  Steven, Auntie Sarah, L & I went to this local hot spot for lunch today, they mill thier own wheat which I find amazing! I had a veggie wrap with home made hummus, YUM! & we brought some fruit topped biscuits for our drive to San Francisco tomorrow. L had the Raspberry Swedish Cream (DELISH!), Steven had thier clam chowder w/ a Tillamook Chedder biscuit & Sarah had the Chicken Ceasar Wrap. They were cooking Thai Chicken Soup for tomorrow & the place smelled like heaven! I had to tell them it's so wrong to cook something that smells so amazing & then tell us we can't have it till tomorrow, torture!

Her cream was really delish, not quite sure what the face was about but it was too funny not to include.Be vewry, vewry quiet, we are hunting wabbits ;)Dad, Auntie & kids worked very hard on what they called "Goon Docks" while L & I went on a treasure hunt.

A fed a bag of old bread to the local yokels, they followed her around like she was the pied piper of Cannon Beach.

All A has ever wanted is to fly a kite on the beach & today was her day, her wish came true with (ahemmm) flying colors ;)

This was a sweet moment between Dad & A that was too cute not to share (doesn't he look happy on the beach?)

Jake was such a good sport & let the girls bury him in the sand.

Our last sunset at Standing Stones on Cannon Beach, I can't recommend it enough, we had a blast & I am sorry to go but can't wait to rush back & feel the sand between my toes & chill bumps on my arms :)