WIld Fire Day

Smoothie of the day: collard greens, water, frozen blueberries, banana and chia seeds. 

not a fan of thick smoothies. 

i need to only use fresh (not frozen) fruit from now on i think.

As I was driving home at 1pm after taking Sam to lunch, I saw that the mountain was ON FIRE!!! 
there were quite a few cars stopped on the side of the road near the end of this road where you get a better view of it.
scary!

As dad and I stood outside to hear the helicopter come from Ellensberg with the water bucket, dad showed me all of our growing vegetables!
tomatoes,

cucumber,

jalapeno peppers,

and i think acorn squash!

Our neighbor has given us some Kefir starter. I will be sure to share what i think of it when its ready. apparently i can use this starter indefinitely if i keep it going every day. like a thin yogurt. Kefir is a live culture pro-biotic. all i have to do is put the curd like "grains" in 3 cups of milk and wait a few days. then drain it completely. the runoff is the Kefir milk or "yogurt".

This was the fire at 5pm when I went back to pick up Sam after work.

In the evening, we went to Joann's. I had some money left on a gift card burning a hole in my pocket, so I found some cool measuring tape fabric and some silver with dots. I plan to make some quilt squares (hexagons!) and a few baby teether necklaces out of the silver.

Ma got a salad, and sam and i enjoyed passion tea lemonade from starbucks. oh, and sam of course couldnt resist Coldstone. she is obsessed with a mix of cake batter ice cream with chocolate ice cream and kitkats...  it WAS tasty.

  

After our snack, Ma and I went in to Half Price Books (where i picked up the hand that first held mine by maggie o'farrell) and we were on our way back home. 

we couldnt see the fire on the mountain by that time. it was too dark out. and i think most of the fire on the mountain is underbrush.

Last night, I premixed myself a green smoothie so I could wake up and get right to getting ready to ride along with a friend to Girls Camp.
EW. it thickened in the night.
I have learned that I only like fresh smoothies, and thin smoothies.

My visit to Girls Camp at the Ensign Ranch near Easton was really fun and relaxing. We picked up Ramona's daughter because she had to get on a flight to California to go spend time on the beach with her friend at 4 in the afternoon.

Mom was at quilting when I returned from Girls Camp, so I stopped and got her a cold drink at McDonalds....where the line is ALWAYS so long and slow mid afternoon.

then I, of COURSE, made the worst nutritional choice I could make at McDonalds for my lunch...

Mom looked like she was having a great time at quilting.

THIS is the next quilt I want to make. I'd also like to try my hand at hand quilting it as well! INTERESTING!

oh yeah, and then after quilting, we picked up Sam from work and got Tacos for dinner and then I decided to chase it with Chia Fresca (water, lemon, chia seeds and agave). I am SOOO FULL.

Chia seeds are the weirdest thing. They are, however, supposed to be excellent for the human body.

I made my way through stripe 3 at Yarn Therapy today. On to "mulberry".

I didn't have my green smoothie until 3pm today. I got a late start to my morning and then went to Subway for lunch. After knitting from 12-3, I returned home to make this Spinach, Strawberry, Banana smoothie. YUM!

The septic guy came yesterday and laid the supplies for the renewal of our drain field out in the back yard.

A last glance at what our yard looked like before the wreckage that will be either tomorrow or the next day.

some mysterious, black, snap togethers for the project. THIS should be interesting to capture in photos...

Tomorrow morning, I plan to accompany my friend as she picks her daughter up from Girls Camp and drops her at the airport to spend time with a friend in another state. I should go make my smoothie for tomorrow right now, so it's one less thing I have to think about tomorrow morning. We leave at 10 am.

I borrowed a couple of nature food books from the library today, but they arent what i was hoping. I am looking more for a foraging book. Something that will tell me what I can eat out of my backyard/front lawn/trees and plants.
I am looking to get quite a variety of greens for my smoothies.

In one of those books were these two quotes that I enjoyed.

Sam and I *enjoyed* a strawberry romaine smoothie this evening

as Sam continued to read City of Bones to me so I could knit on the purples.

Not much progress was made on the purples tonight.I'm still on color 3. of 7.

Parsley. Blech

One big grocery store bunch of parsley, 1 mango, 6 strawberries, 2 bananas, 2c water. Blend. 

Boy, that tasted green. Parsley had a hard time breaking all the way down. 

I think it's safe to say that parsley is a "never again" food. Added to the list with cantaloupe. . 

Blueberries, Blankets, Books and Roast Beef.

Green Smoothie of the Day: Spinach, a banana, much blueberries and water. This was fantastic.

Mondays at the Senior Center are "UFO" days..... (Un Finished Objects) :)
Mom took some mending and I worked on my purples. Margo and Anna showed up and sat at the table with us. There were also a few people at another table painting. SUCH talent...

I needed (yeah, needed) a roast beast sandwich. I was definitely thinking Arby's. (oh yeah, and mom brought in her own container of blueberries and munched on those after her pecan chicken salad wrap)

After returning home with Sam in tow, we sat outside while dad and the repair man from our ward, brother Peacock, looked/worked at our refrigerator. We also found that there was a wasps nest in our Rhododendron bush, so dad got out the wasp spray. There are now dead wasps on the ground. In abundance. EW. It worked though...
Sam and I sat in her room while I knit (i made it through the second purple and am adding a dark pink) and she read "city of bones" to me. We are now on chapter 7. This was night two of Sam reading out loud while I knit on my purples. 

I am really liking City of Bones. We are planning to go to the midnight showing with our friends Ramona, Victor, and Jackie. I think that comes out August 20th. Ash and Sam book club has to stay with it. It's been really funny because when you read out loud and get in the groove, sometimes there's a mash-up of words and phrases. Making us laugh. It's great. SISTER TIME!

Books, Bars, BBQ, bad hot air balloon shows...

Well, I folded and took Sam to Walmart last night. We got chocolate,

and new water bottles, she got some shorts and a tank top, I got a $.50 mead notebook, some pens, hair dye for August, a few mangoes, some frozen collard greens and CITY OF BONES in a small book version (i love the small book versions of books with the movie covers on them the MOST...i know people usually hate this kind, but it's my thing). 

This morning, I made up a Green Smoothie with water, collard greens, 2 bananas and 1 mango. It was okay. Tolerable. Tasted VERY green.

Since Cousins Night is tonight, I made Peanut Butter Bars for my lovely Emily cousin. :)

Then mom decided to barbecue a turkey (cut up into pieces). It turned out SO yummy.

 

Cousins Night was really fun. We had tacos and Theresa made minion cupcakes (i'll post a picture tomorrow) and we all enjoyed the peanut butter bars.  

At 9pm, a few of us went over to some hot air balloon "glow" event, which actually never started, so we left at about 10:45. The show I guess was supposed to be from 10-11, but they were just figuring things out by 10:30. So not worth it. I did, however, get to enjoy some chat time with Carol. It was good. I don't think I got eaten by bugs tonight, luckily. 

Cantaloupe in the morning, Ashley take warning...Wal-Mart at night, Sammy's Delight!

Green Smoothie of the morning: Cantaloupe and Spring mix/spinach (the 50/50 mix from safeway).
As time went on, I realized Cantaloupe may not be made for my body. I didn't have a huge reaction, but I had a slightly upset stomach for a while.

This afternoon, ma and I took some yarn over to our friend's house where our Yarn Therapy club has QUITE a stash on this cool shelving unit. We are trying to downsize the amount of yarn we have in our house, and Pat (whose house this is at) has graciously allowed us to keep the large stash in her garage instead of us piling it up at our house, where we REALLY don't have room for it.

After Pat's house, ma and I had some lunch at Taco Time :) YUMMM.

We went home after lunch and tried to relax in the heat.
Before picking Sam up from work, I stopped at Safeway to get a few supplies for Cousins Night tomorrow. (I got graham crackers, powdered sugar, bananas and a head of lettuce).
I was thirsty and hot, so I stopped at Starbucks at the Safeway Gas station, and got Sam and I both Strawberries 'n' Cream Frappes. It did the trick. She was pleasantly surprised after her day at the daycare.

(Oh, fun fact....THIS is what I generally look like when I'm waiting for Sam to get off work.) :)

I dropped Sam off at her Visiting Teacher's house so she could help her work up her Resume, then I went home and gathered up the yarn that I took from Pat's house for my hombre purple blanket. I put them in this order and thus shall the colors of my blanket be known.

Now Sam wants to go to Walmart for something but I just want to veg out. (I'll probably end up at Walmart tonight)

Booties, Brothers, Blankets and Blueberries :)

At Yarn Therapy today, I knit up a pair of baby booties, which I don't have a picture of. A friend of mine, Margo has asked me to make her 3 pairs of booties for her grandchildren. 1 is an as of yet unborn baby girl, the other 2 are boys and they are 1 1/2 and 2 1/2. I will be looking around for the best booties/socks that I can find. Only the cutest for my friends!

After Yarn Therapy on Thursdays, Mom and I (and sometimes Sam, and our friend Ramona) go up to Finaghty's for lunch and to visit with my brother (the manager!). It is always a tasty fun time. Today I had the special- Spicy chicken Sandwich with fries. It had COLESLAW ON IT! yummm. I left off the cheese because I am NOT A FAN. It was really great. oh, and a diet coke. as per usual.

 I know I'm crazy weird and I like to make blankets in the heat of the summer, but I am in love with these hombre blankets and cannot resist trying one out. So, this afternoon, I started in on a purple one. I hope to make it close to the color scheme of the bottom right hand blanket in this picture.

I didn't have to pick up Sam from work today, because she was off adventuring with a friend. When she returned home, she was so hungry she had a headache, so off we went to our local best-food-in-the-world joint "Teriyaki Town" and had us some hot and spicy chicken with rice and salad. Sam is so stealthy. She knows how to use chopsticks and I.....I can only play them on the piano. poorly at that. (You'd think with my ability to knit and crochet, I'd be more skilled in the art of stick holding...) LAME. I guess that's one of my humility points. 

Here Sam is gleaning the small bounty from our blueberry bushes...I think there might have been all of 7. Of course she ate all of them without sharing ONE with me....of COURSE!