The Magic is in the Hole

My little sister Josie came to visit for a few days.  Unfortunately, we were unable to take any time off work.  It was the weekend but we managed to only work minimal overtime so that was nice to have extra time to spend with her.

We took walks on the beach...

practiced our "special" faces:

Good lord Skott's tongue looks HUGE

being silly

watched movies, drank wine, and had a great time!  Josie cut and colored my hair also.  I LOVE it!  Thanks sis!

The dogs loved having their Aunt Josie visiting.  Every night we came home to various sleeping arrangements on the couch:

 

(we really do have a spare bed, our couch is just SUPER comfortable)
We had to stop by Voodoo doughnut on our way back to the airport!

 

We had to purchase one of their unique coffee mugs!

I'm so glad my sister came to visit!  I hated to see it end.  Of course, we had to entertain ourselves while we waited in line at the airport:

 

"Crazy Eye"

Love you Josie!



Crazy week

I am still in shock that it is a full week into August.  Seriously, where is summer going?

Last week was busy, but satisfying.

We have been trying to exercise walk at least 3 days a week in addition to walking to the stores whenever possible.  The summer traffic has been absolutely wretched here in town so we try and walk.  Luckily, the grocery store, outlet mall, and BiMart are all within a mile of us.
We pass by this gorgeous hydrangea every day on our way to the beach:

Skott's latest creation:

driftwood, beach rocks, and sea glass

the picture angle is somewhat funky but he has been making various window mobiles using driftwood, beach stones, and sea glass.  He makes all the copper rings as well.  I will have to get photos of the others, they are beautiful.

We tried our hand at re-creating a recipe from our favorite pub in Newport.  Skott made the spicy buffalo-style chicken and I made the fresh "blue cheese" dressing.  I am NOT a fan of blue cheese dressing (the thought of eating moldy cheese just kills me) so I modified the recipe.  It turned out amazing and it was very low cal and healthy.  Here is the original recipe, with my modifications in red in parantheses):

Low Fat Creamy Blue Cheese Dressing:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese (I used the very last hunk of goat cheese we had  from Dad and Sherry's farm.  Any strong/sharp cheese should work well)
6oz fat free Greek yogurt (I used just regular low fat yogurt)
1 Tbsp light mayo (I used fat free sour cream instead)
1 Tbsp lemon juice (I was out, so I used lime juice but I think it would have been better with lemon)
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1/8 tsp garlic powder (I used a lot more than that!)
salt and pepper to taste

In a small bowl, mash the blue cheese and yogurt together with a fork.  Stir in mayo, lemon, vinegar, and garlic until well blended.  Salt and pepper to taste.  I also added fresh chives from the garden because it needed some "color".
This recipe makes about 1 cup.  It was so yummy to dip our chicken bites in!  My only complaint was the next day it seperated and by the third day, it was pretty "runny".  So I would suggest only making as much as you can eat in one or two meals.

We also made homemade tortillas for the first time using corn flour, water, and salt.  I loved how they tasted and enjoyed the fact that they didn't have ANY lard in them at all.  It was a little hard to press them out evenly so we just ordered a tortilla press on amazon, I'll have to blog next time we make them with the press.

Last night I made cookie dough flavored hummus.  It was SO GOOD!  I want to play with the recipe a little more before I share it.... who knew garbanzo beans + apple sauce + splenda + vanilla + quick oats + a few other minor ingredients = the healthiest cookie dough you will ever eat !?!?!

I got to (briefly) see my sister Amy, Tim, Ellie, and Dereck on Friday.  They were headed to Tim's family reunion about an hour from here.  They stopped in Newport for groceries so I went down and hung out with them at Walmart :) haha  I wanted to go see them again the next day but we ended up working mass overtime all weekend :(

Izzy's been having it rough lately.  Her meds aren't working and I haven't decided if I want to try and switch over to another one (it's a pretty complicated process, not to mention extrememly expensive with lots of testing and monitoring).  She is losing hair again and most of the skin on her body is calcified.  Poor little girl.  When she's not panting or sleeping, she still bounds around the house and terrorizes the backyard.  We took the dogs to the beach yesterday.  They lasted about 20 minutes, which is about 15 minutes longer than I thought they would :)

I tell Izzy she is a "hot mess".  T-shirt to protect open wounds and
booties to keep her from bloodying her feet in the sand.

Fucie was pooped after his "walk"

We also went crabbing yesterday.  We got there at 7am, about 3 1/2 hours before low tide.  Everyone says crabbing is best at low tide but the last two times we have had phenomenal luck crabbing as the tide is going out.  We each put out a trap and on the first pull, Skott got 3 keepers.  My first three pulls came back empty so I switched over to the other side of Skott.  We ended up with 9 crabs by 10:45!  We decided to call it an early day since we had plenty of crab. Here is a photo of the biggest one:  If you look, you can see the marking for Oregon.  The crabs have to be atleast 5 3/4" wide right below their horns.  I think this one was plenty big enough:)

Silver Spoons! Knives! Forks!

Skott saw this idea and suprised me with some awesome plant markers for my herb garden:

Lemon Basil

Love Love Love Lavender

Oregano

Chives

Mmmmmm Lavender

He bought some tools on ebay to "punch" the letters into the silver.  I love them!  Thanks babe!

Making laundry soap

I am pretty picky when it comes to my laundry soap.  I have tried every brand out there.  Since moving to Oregon, I have continued to struggle with finding one I like.  I finally got brave and took the plunge and decided to make my own.
Oh my
If I had only known YEARS ago how EASY and CHEAP this is!

I decided to go the liquid route, since I wasn't sure how the water here did with powdered detergent, and also because we wear a lot of dark clothes and wash in cold water most of the time.

I found the ingredients I needed at Winco but I have seen them at Walmart, Ace Hardware, etc. -they are not hard to find.

The recipe:

bring to a boil on the stove 4 cups water
(while waiting for water to boil, use a cheese grater and grate one bar of soap of your choice.  I use Yardley because I LOVE their lavender soap and they are also a more natural company.  The less chemicals, the better).
*note:  make sure you are holding your cheese grater the correct direction!  The first time I made soap I couldn't figure out why it was taking me so long to grate the soap.... until my dear husband kindly pointed out I wasn't grating against the sharp edge! haaha
So normally, if you start the water to boil, then start grating, you should have the bar grated by the time the water reaches a boil.
Reduce the heat a little and slowly add the soap shavings.  Be prepared, the first bit you drop in will cause a lot of boiling and froth, but it quickly settles down. 
Stir with a plastic spoon and continue to add the shavings until all dissolved. 
Once completely dissolved, turn off heat and remove.

(I do the next step in the tub)
Using a five gallon bucket, add in 3 gallons of hot/warm water. 
You should only have to measure the first time you make soap, then make a mark on the outside of your bucket where 3 gallons is.
Add to the warm/hot water in your five gallon bucket:
1 cup washing soda
1/2 cup Borax

Stir until dissolved, then add your pan of dissolved soap. 
Mix together, put the lid on and let it sit for 24 hours.
After 24 hours, mix again, breaking up all the chunks and solids.
I kept an old detergent bottle and using a funnel, pour from the big bucket into the bottle. 
The soap will gel so be sure to shake it before use (if storing it in old detergent bottle) or stir (if storing in bucket).
I use about 1 cup per load, depending on stain and odors.

I can't even begin to calculate the cost, as the Yardley is around $1 per bar and I paid $3.88 for Borax and $3.17 for washing soda, both of which are going to last for many, many, many batches.  I noticed last time I was at Winco they carried Felsnaptha bar soap so next time I am going to get one and melt it down for a concentrated stain remover.

Here is a great page I found with several different "recipes", both powdered and liquid.  And I love the extensive FAQ at the end of the article.  A must read if you are even remotely interested in making your own laundry soap and saving money.
http://tipnut.com/10-homemade-laundry-soap-detergent-recipes/

The first batch I made lasted about 6 weeks (I probably do an average of 4-5 loads of laundry per week).  I have been very happy with the results.  It even gets the yucky cigarette smoke out of our uniforms.  And total time from start to finish was about 15 minutes :)

My "little" brother

A week after Mason went home, we picked up my little brother Seth at the Portland airport.  I cannot believe he is almost 18!
It was SUPER hot in Portland that day (as in 93 degrees, but hey, we are spoiled here with the coastal breezes and 65-70 degree days!).  We went shopping for a couple hours and then decided to hit up a farmers market on our way home.  The market was amazing!  It was mostly all food -veggies, produce, prepared food, etc.  We wandered around and bought a bunch of different kinds of berries:  tayberries, boysenberries, and marionberries.  We also got some various breads and rolls.  Seth decided to try a homemade tamale and Skott and I opted for wood fired pizza.

Although Seth was only here for two weeks, we tried to squeeze in as much sightseeing as we could.  Unfortunately, we have been SUPER busy at work lately =working later hours= sleeping later in the day. 


Daily walks on the beach

Newport Bay Historic Bayfront

Trip to Tillamook Cheese Factory

Oceanside beach

Crabbing/Relaxing at the Bay

the dogs LOVED their Uncle Seth!

We shared a lot of laughs, cooked a lot of new foods, and had a great time.  Too bad the trip wasn't longer, there was so much more we wanted to show him.

On our way back to the airport, we left early enough to stop by VooDoo doughnut in Portland.  They have the most amazing combinations and I love that all their packaging is 100% compostable/recycleable

Getting ready to head in to Voodoo doughnut

Skott got the bacon and maple bar. 
Two giant strips of bacon on a light fluffy maple bar

(I was trying to make the same face as my doughnut)
I got the Voodoo doll.  At the center of the green swirl is a pretzel stake,
 like poking a voodoo doll, and the inside of the doughnut is filled with red jelly.

Seth got a couple extra doughnuts to take home.
Being that this is a family friendly blog, the giant
chocolate doughnut shall remain unnamed :)



Cherry Picking!

After dropping Mason off at the Portland airport (sad, sad, sad), we decided to stop by a U-Pick Cherry farm some friends of ours told us about.  It's located about halfway between the airport and our house.

We got some instructions, some bags, and the last available bucket, and set off to the cherry trees.  We wanted mostly Rainiers cherries, but they ended up being smaller and not as ripe.  Neither one of us had picked cherries before and we quickly got frustrated with trying to carefully pluck the cherry+stem off, but not too much of the base of the stem so the cherry could grow next year.  If anyone has any suggestions, I am ready to listen :) 
Since the car was close by, we walked back and got a knife and I just so happened to have a pair of scissors in my purse that day...

It went MUCH faster after our new tools and we quickly filled two grocery bags with cherries.

We laughed and talked and had a great time.  It reminded me a lot of picking raspberries when I was little.  All of us cousins would be out there with dishrags tied around our waists to hold the jars.  We probably ate more than we picked, and I remember Grandpa Rex telling us he couldn't hear us whistling.  He said we couldn't whistle if we had a mouthfull of raspberries :)  I must say though, picking cherries is waaaaay easier than picking raspberries :)

Catching Up

We are really enjoying having my nephew Mason visiting.  He is a great kid and a lot of fun!  Consequently, I haven't been doing much with my blog so here is a quick recap of the last few weeks:

We learned how to crab!  The Siletz Bay is great for crabbing.  We learned that it is better to use chicken instead of fish for bait.  If you use fish, the sea lions across the bay will steal your bait :)
We also learned that it is very, very important to have good gloves!

putting chicken in the trap

Mason getting ready to toss out

I like Skott's form!

It is also very important to remember sunscreen!  We were all pretty crispy by the next day...

Our first (legal) catch.  They have to be male and they have to be a certain size.  We ended up catching three crab that day.

The following weekend we went camping at Fort Stevens State Park in Seaside, Oregon (about 2 1/2 hours north).  The mosquitoes were shockingly HORRIBLE!  

Izzy made herself at home in my camp chair

playing basketball at the arcade

We ended up cutting the trip a day short, as the weather forecast changed and there was 70% chance of rain starting at midnight and continuing through the following day.  We did not want to take down a tent in the rain!

 

Izzy has grown quite fond of Mason and loves to snuggle on the couch with him:

I cannot believe the entire month of June has passed by so quickly!  It has been so much fun having Mason here, it feels like he just got here yesterday.