Michelle's Space

I am moving my blog over to Blogger since it allows me to do more.  This has been a great started blog.  I will move my links and lists over as time allows.

 

My new blog:  Life in the hen house

On Wednesday the Ikea finally opened up.  When they decided to build the Ikea on the Max Train line saying that we can take the train to Ikea.  This is a nice idea if you are planning to make small purchases, but if you are going to buy furniture, it could get a bit akward.  I pictured  the scene from Seinfeld where Kramer bought the air conditioner and brought it home on the subway.  They do offer delivery and there is a $10.00 discount if you take the train.  We own a mini-van that can hold a ton of furniture and Ikea is only 15 minutes away, so I bet I use much less fuel then the delivery truck would use and it would save me money.  We did not buy furniture today and the boys love taking the train, so we went there via train today.

 

Liam has this stuffed parrot that he call Bald Eagle and he insisted on taking the "bald eagle" with him when we got in the car.  I wanted him to leave it in the car, but when we got to the station he kept saying "bald eagle take train".  He quite strong-willed, so I let him take it.  When we were on the train he said "bald eagle fly plane".  I did not give him that wish.  Ikea is next to the airport, so the boys had the additional thrill of seeing the planes come in for landings.

 

Ikea was crowded, but we had fun looking around and I finally bought hooks to hang our towels on.  Our towel bar fell down several months ago and I have been waiting for Ikea to get a replacement.  The highlight of the trip was of course dinner.  I can't get enough of the meatball meal and kids meals are .99 cents.  The cafe looks out to the train station and you can still see the planes landing, so it is a great place to eat with kids.  They also have a kids play area in the cafe and a TV playing Disney Movies.  Today it was Peter Pan and when I took Liam away from it he got mad a yelled "like Peter Pan" several times.  We own the dvd, so it is not like he can watch it at home.

 

After shopping some more, we checked out and took the train back to the car.  Liam fell asleep on the way home, which was the highlight of the trip.

 

On the poultry front, our chickens are loving the straw we put in the hen house.  I guess it makes them feel like they have a nest.  I was late in feeding them tonight, so they were just sitting in their house waiting for me.

 

Tomorrow is David's day off, so I plan to get a couple of layouts completed.  Stay tuned. 

We went out today and got three baby chicks.  Our turkey and remaining cornish hen have a special day scheduled in early September, then we can get down to the business and having laying chickens.  I am looking for a worthy chicken recipe.

 

I also spent this afternoon, trimming back the rasberry, blackberry and misc. weeks in our backyard.  I also trimmed the grapevines a bit.  Our apple tree is producing a good harvest this year, so Christian helped me gather up the apples on the ground and I made applesauce from it, we ate applesauce as the sidedish with our pulled pork sandwiches, then I made oatmeal/applesauce muffins which are very good.

 

I was invited to join Laura Mcgee's creative team.  Laura's speciality is doodles and I just love working with doodles, so I am very excited to be on her team.  She also has great kits.  I did the soccer layout I promised yesturday using Bright Eyes and border doodles.  I also used the Jannylyn's Grunge Edge Frames on this layout.

 

I also did a layout with Christian in the pool using A New Bag by Jannylyn

The sun is back.  I am glad we had some rain, it will keep things green longer.  I need to go buy some yar debris bags and start wacking in my yard.  I have this nasty bush thing growing in my lavender and my rasberry vines are as tall as our house.

Christian and I went to the open rehersal for Chamber music northwest.  The schedule said they would rehearse Mozart today and I thought Christian would enjoy that.  The first part of the practice was an original score by Edgar Meyer, with Edgar Meyer playing bass and leading the reherseal.  It was exciting seeing the composer try to bring his work together, but the piece was complicated and not as fun or a young child to listen to.  Christian god bored (so did I)  He did get to see a good demonstration of woodwind instruments, which he enjoyed.  If you listen to NPR, you will probably hear the work sometime soon on a break during All Things Considered.  It totally has that sound.

 

We also went swimming and Christian had his last soccer class.  I like how I try to keep my kids busy so they will be tired at night, but I am the only one who seems to get tired.  I took some fun pictures of the class and I will get a layout together and show them off here soon.

 

I did a layout using Texas our Texas by Pyralis Designs.  I have only been to the Dallas/Fortworth Airport and I did not take pictures there, but the kit is fun for patriotic layouts and boy thems. 

 

If we were to do an Oregon my Oregon kit, I wonder what would be featured.  Trees and recyling bins?  The papers could have fleece and gortex effects on them.

 

My podcast plug for this week is In the Studio with Michael Card.  This is a great podcast featuring Michael Card and his music as well as quality Bible teaching and greats stop by and join him.

 

I just saw on Michael Card's website that he has just done a version of My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers read by Michael Card.  I will have to check out iTunes to see if they are selling it there.

 

We went out to Blue Lake park today and hung out by the lake with some other families from church.  The boys were having a good time then these two boys and their mother came and they had a ton of sand toys.  Liam walked down and started playing with their toys and the boys were getting mad and trying to push him away.  I tried to stay out of it and let them resolve it, but the boys grabbed their toys and ran up to their mother.  She started yelling at Liam for playing with their toys.  I came and took Liam away from the situation.  Liam is quite persistant, so he continued to go down and play with their toys and I would go grab him away.  One time when I went to get him the boys were telling Liam that the toys were theirs and they wanted him to stay away and the mother was their and all she did was correct their English.  She said nothing about how it is not nice to talk to people that way or anything.  I just walked of quietly again.  After a while the mom and boys went to swim and several of the kids from our group went down and started playing with the toys.  When the mom and boys came out of the water, I warned the other moms in my group that there might be trouble.  The mom walked over and just grabbed the toys out of the kids hands.  We tried to get our kids away from them, but of course, Liam had to go down there again and they had buckets of water now and normally I would try to stop him when he tries to stick in a bucket, but I just let him and the mother turned to me and asked me if I could keep him away from them.  I told her he wasy two and does what he wants and if they do not want to share or play with others, maybe they should leave their toys at home and walked off one last time.   

 

I did a layout using  Alexander by Baers Garten Designs at Elemental Scraps