Girl's BBQ on the Deck

My older sister Roberta (center, in white) has her granddaughter Ava (2nd from right) here with her for a few weeks.  I offered to host a luncheon on the deck in her honor.  Our sister-in-law D'Ann (in purple) was serendipitously in town visiting her children and was able to join us also.  Far right is Tami, Roberta's DIL and far left is my younger sister Denise.  Dayle smoke grilled BBQ chicken breasts for us, Denise brought potato salad, Roberta brought fruit salad and Orange Baked Beans.  I have 3 siblings, Robert and Roberta are twins, then moi, then the baby Denise.

Today was the beginning of a heat wave here, I about died of the heat while bustling around before they arrived, cleaning, waxing the piano, putting a lace tablecloth on the dining table inside, setting the table outside.. making iced tea, etc.  Dayle was busy too, vacuuming, blowing off the deck, etc.  And it was all worthwhile.. lunch was perfection!!

I used a French style tablecloth, my Jadeite plates, the Mother-of-Pearl handled silverware, Ball jars for the iced tea, and Dayle picked us a bouquet of one pink rose and 4 "Double Delight" roses for the table.   

It got to 91 degrees here today!  We stayed fairly cool under the shade of the gazebo and with the waterfall next to us making melodious water sounds and giving off cool mist.  The girls headed off at 4 pm and Dayle and I cleared the table and came in the house and turned on our 2 AC units.  Ahhhh...

Sister Roberta had found some vintage Avon containers in a thrift store and bought one for each of us in honor of our Mom who had one of theses.  How nice of her! 

These held scented lotions - Mom loved Skin-So-Soft! 

The ivory roses with the pink edges are called "Double Delight" and interestingly, my younger sister's mother-in-law tested these for Jackson and Perkins and got to name them!  They smell divine!  If you don't have one, you should buy one.  I just checked and it's the number one rated rose for scent and beauty! 

Wish you could smell this. :-) 

We are now in the house and are cooling down.  Ahhhh... 

We got two strands of globe lights and Dayle and Travis ran them around under the gazebo for evening light.  Also - we got 6 new cushions for our chairs as the old ones were worn out.  I really like the tropical look of these.  Do you see our Blue Heron decoy?  He's there to scare off other real Blue Herons which have eaten many of our fish.. dang them. 

 I think we've almost gotten the deck ready for the summer, Dayle plans to pressure wash the deck and re-stain it.  

Dayle is very proud of his ceramic pot buying and planting project... Jasmine and blue Lobelia. 

He also brought home 2 hanging baskets of geraniums. 

The waterfalls (there are 3 with 3 ponds and then the larger one at the bottom.) 

I wish I remembered the name of the bamboo I planted there - it's very full and graceful, but it's roots do not "run" it stays contained.

I had mentioned to Kristi that we needed more plant stands to get the pots up off the deck - and she surprised us with a large collection of some that were extra at her parent's house! 

When were at a garden center buying the lobelia I snapped up a Lantana.. they thrive in the south and won't live through our winter, but I love how the flowers open up red, then turn orange, then yellow - very colorful! 

Just a few shots of Multnomah Falls yesterday.  Can you guess what is unusual about this photo?

OK, I'll tell you... the sun is shining on the waterfall!  This falls is on the north side of this tall cliff and the sun only shines down on it during this time of year - most of the year it's in shadow.  :-)

I just snapped this shot of the gazebo at dusk, all lit up and of the pond lights and Dayle's Dad's Chinese lantern that Dayle wired up to light.  :-)

Can we talk books?  I've been buying and reading books on my iPad - yes, I love real books and have many, but for ease of purchasing I've bought several eBooks.  I just finished one last night and I have to be honest.. there was way too much S*X in it!  It was "The Yonahllossee Riding Camp for Girls".  I found it by googling the best seller list.  It came up on several I found.  I thought.. girls.. horses.. camp.. this might be good.  I was tense the whole time following this young girl through her poor choices!!  Before this one I read "Sea Glass" - it had too much about the cotton mills striking and all.  I read "Last Summer" and wanted to smack the woman 1,000 times for not speaking her mind!  SHEESH!  I read "Where'd you go, Bernadette"... it was kind of crazy.  .... SO.. can anyone recommend a GOOD book? :-)  Enjoy your weekend and stay cool.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Shocking News!

Before I tell you the shocking news, I had to share this photo of this cute little vintage style wagon that Kristi brought over - she put some pots of flowers (that we need to plant) in it and I thought it looked charming sitting in front of the chicken yard.  :-)

NOW, to the news... I went to Fabric Depot here in SE Portland after swimming on Monday and found what I thought would be a perfect pink for Caleb - the color name is.. "Shocking Pink"!  I texted this photo to Kristi to show Caleb.. and he liked it!  And his Dad likes it!  I like it!  We all like it.. maybe even love it. HA!  Now what am I going to do with 2 skeins of too bulky orange yarn?  Maybe make some pumpkins in the fall.  What do you think of this color? :-)

While I was off swimming, Dayle made strawberry freezer jam!

These are actually the last berries of our local growers, so I'm glad he got them.

Freezer jam is our favorite, as it tastes WAY fresher, as you don't cook the berries.  You mash the berries, mix sugar, a little lemon juice and pectin with it, stir and ta-dah!

You put it in freezer containers and let it sit out for 24 hours, then pop it into the freezer for fresh berry jam in the winter.  Our next jam will be raspberry, our favorite.  Kristi and Travis brought all 4 boys over yesterday and we gave them lunch of peanut butter and fresh jam sandwiches.  :-)

I got some neat metal buttons at Fabric Depot, too.. and sewed them on the bear's overalls... then Kristi thought he needed a pocket on the front, which I made and sewed on, then I made a little hanky and stuck it in there.  :-)  A side note - guess what else was at Fabric Depot?  This green yarn!!!  

My super hero grandson, Hayden and his bear.  I had a solemn conversation with him on the care of his bear.  No hitting anyone with it.  Don't let the dogs play with it.  Take good care of it.  And I made it with love for him.  I hoped he would sleep with it tonight.  

Kristi is doing a "home summer school" with all 4 boys.  They did their work and then grandpa gave them each a bowl of strawberry shortcake!  This is Michael, left, and Gabe on the right. 

Hayden and Caleb enjoy theirs.  I'm not sure why Caleb is looking at Hayden like this.. :-) 

Caleb with the beginnings of his bear.. and a mouth full of strawberry shortcake! 

A few people asked how I've lost 25 lbs.  Well.. we started out with a well-known program that uses famous people as spokespeople... they sent us large boxes of prepared foods.  I thought we needed something to jump-start us.  It worked by showing us small serving sizes and what kinds of things we could eat.  We supplemented it with fresh salads and cooked fresh veggies.  We used small amounts of dressing on the salads and Molly McButter sprinkled on the veggies.  A sample of our daily meals is:  Breakfast - one of their granola type bars which actually taste pretty good.  We're allowed a mid-morning snack, but we never eat it.  Lunch is one of their entrees with a veg or salad.  Afternoon snack - a bar or non-fat yogurt.  Dinner now is a smaller serving of something healthy that we make - like BBQ chicken in small amounts with a 1/2 cup of mashed potatoes and a bit of gravy (chicken gravy from a packet) - and either a salad or cooked veg.  In the evening we even have a "Skinny Cow" ice cream bar.  It's slow but we're both losing, not going up!  I can't wait to get all the prepared stuff consumed so we can have healthier and tastier and SMALLER meals that we make ourselves.  But the stuff we got really helped us get started.  ... ok.. I head off swimming soon.  On Friday I'm hosting a Girl's Lunch on my deck and Dayle is BBQing us chicken.. they are bringing orange baked beans and potato salad!  Have a great weekend!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Super Moon & Too Much Rain

Over the weekend the news kept reminding us of the "Super Moon" - once a year, yadda yadda.  I adore the moon.  I love taking photos of it.  So, on Friday I went out the night before "perfection" and got this shot of it from my deck, zooming all the way in using my Panasonic Lumix with Leica lens.  Good thing I jumped the gun as the sky was clouded over the next two nights!  When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that's amore...

Our son and DIL brought the boys over yesterday - they were going to help Dayle build the play structure.. and it rained.. all.. day.. Grandpa made 2 dozen scrambled eggs and toast for us all and we sat out under the gazebo.. in the rain.. drip, drip.. and had brunch together.. drip.. drip... I don't know why Caleb was looking at grandpa that way.. :-)  I think grandpa told him he had to eat his eggs BEFORE squeezing oodles of honey on his toast.  OH.. funny.. my nail files and polish aren't very stylish on the breakfast table.  

Our hens are producing well!  Can you believe how rich and golden our scrambled eggs are with our own cage free, free-range chickens?  If you've ever wanted chickens, I highly recommend it.  There is nothing more satisfying than knowing where your food came from and the good quality of feed and care that you give them. 

Kristi ran in and asked for my camera.. then came back to give me this image, it's a Pileated Woodpecker!  There were THREE of them in our trees!!  We could see them flying around our woods and trees all afternoon and listened to them sing.  I have a bird app on my iPhone.. "iBird Western" - where you can find the bird and listen to it's call.  I played the call and the birds sang back to it! 

Boys.  They have been asked that when they find a stick or branch to please take it down and throw it on the burn pile.  Look at this one they found.  :-) 

After HOURS of sitting outside in the drizzle and the boys running around like wild natives we finally came inside and watched a goofy kid cartoon version of "Treasure Island".  Sheesh.. it was silly, but the littlies enjoyed it.  And grandpa did too?  Ha! 

And then I looked over and ... awwwww...  

Now I have a question for you.  Caleb, the baby of the family at 4 years of age, will be the last Teddy Bear I crochet for the 6 grandkids.  A year ago I asked him which color he'd like and without hesitation he said.. "Ow-inge".  So, I got some.. but when I looked closely at it - it was TOO bulky and chunky.  So, I got his huge skein of James C. Brett "Marble" in blues.  So, yestereday I showed him the yarn and he goes.. "I don't like blue!"  What?  So I said what DO you want?  And he goes "PINK!"  Oh boy.  His dad does not want him to have a pink bear.  His mom is okay with whatever Caleb wants.  Now what?  Any ideas?  HELP!

Well.. the kids are coming over again today to try to work on the play structure and not long ago we had a downpour.  I wish the rain would GO AWAY so we could get this thing done.  How is the weather where you are?  I'm off to go swimming.  I'm down 25 lb. :-)  ((hugs)), Teresa :-) 

Rollin' On the River

We went on a cruise on the Sternwheeler Columbia Gorge today - out of Cascade Locks.  I made the arrangements for the familiarization trip nearly 30 years ago and our volunteers for Vista House and Multnomah Falls are able to do this every year.  Last year we took our older grandsons and this year we took the littlest ones and their mom, Kristi.  We've have better weather, it was cloudy and coolish today, but what the heck, we had a great day!

Our DIL Kristi and Caleb, 4 and Hayden, 5 in the bow of the boat on the 2nd level, there are 3. 

The boys had a faboo time!  That is the Bridge of the Gods beyond. 

A shot of the Captain in the Wheelhouse. 

It's fun to stand above the moving paddle wheel and know it's moving us along the river. 

The Bridge of the Gods is really quite beautiful.  There is a legend that in ancient times there was a natural rock bridge over the river that the native peoples used.  There is a lot of skepticism on that legend. :-) 

Behind the little island covered with Cormorants is the back of Bonneville Dam. 

We passed rather closely to an Indian fishing platform - some guys were pulling up some big salmon.  Fishing rights were granted under treaties between the US Government and the local tribes. 

The weather was fair enough that a lot of people enjoyed being outside most of the 3 hours we were cruising along. 

:-) 

We bought the boys and Kristi each a hotdog - Caleb was yumming on his! 

Dayle and I took the boys up to the wheelhouse and the nice lady Captain let them steer. :-)  They wanted to blow the whistle but that didn't fly. :-) 

5 of the Vista House Volunteers dressed in period outfits - Hazel on the left and my old friend Diane on the right.  She and I were dairy goat 4-H leaders together for 5 years. 

Rollin' on the river.. my 2 little skippers. 

They have a photographer take photos as you board the ship and then she comes around with them for sale.  DIL and 2 kidlets. 

Our Multnomah Falls group.

We drove around the marina to where we like to park and enjoy the river - Dayle snapped this photo and the next one for me. 

When we bought our sailboat, Stargazer, we moored her here for 2 years.  We'd sail to a large protected cove upriver about a mile and drop anchor and enjoy the peace and quiet for days.  We'd have the hatch open over the bed and watch the stars and the moon out of the back companionway "door". 

We're home now and relaxing.  This having fun stuff is sure a lot of work. :-)  Have a great weekend!!  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)