Coming Soon

Plan is to add some new items to my shop in the next couple of days. Dave and I have been working on some items that I am so very excited about. These will be non jewelry items... in fact a hint would be that we bought supplies at Rocklers and Home Depot :) I LOVE the new items.. and I Love that they are something that Dave and I are able to work on together. Hoping that this will open a whole new set of doors to our crafting and selling world.

Just a photo I love from the beach the other day :) *nothing to do with new items*

~Michelle

Treasures

Today was an awesome time on the beach... tide was out a bit..and it was a bit chilly but the wind was down so it was not too bad... started off to the left.. which is my favorite direction to head.. a lot less houses and I always seem to find more treasures.. but.. you have to be a lot more careful of the tide coming in. I made it down as far as I could go due to the tide rising and just as I was about to turn around one of my beach friends showed up with her dog and cat so the trip back we visited and treasure hunted.

Found some agates and some cool rocks, even found a rare very small red piece of frosted glass.

When I got home I grabbed a cup of coffee and sat down to the computer.... up on twitter pops a news thing about how a body was found washed up on the beach on Whidbey Island ( which is the island across the water from me.. by about 3 miles ) Checked out the location on google map and it turns out where the body washed up was just across the water.. and they believe the body has been in the water for a month or so... makes me horrible sad. I have come across the body of a seal before and it broke my heart.. it was so sad.. I can not even imagine what it would be like to come across the body of a person.

I know there are gross things in the water.. and everything I bring home gets a wash in some bleach water...just in case... but it all still makes me so sad...I grew up on a farm and have butchered animals and all of that.. I KNOW the cycle of life and how it all works.. I have hunted and fished and I love a good a steak, I still wish though that no one and nothing had to die.

~Michelle

Switch Up?

Been thinking about doing a switch up on my blog... spent sometime checking out wordpress yeserday.... ( here it is ) imported this blog to there and had a look around.. not sure what all is different and if I like it more or less... going to play with it for a bit and see how things work... I really like the idea of being able to have more pages.. all my beach posts in one section and all my geocaching in another.. vacations and family stuff on one page and my shop stuff on another page.... People could read what they wanted and ignore what they want... just not sure where/or if I can do that.

I would LOVE to hear your comments about your experiences with one or the other or both or somewhere else. Also looking for web hosting sites.. so far hostgator is winning. Where do you host your website and do you love it? Is there somewhere you hate? Good experiences and bad I would love to hear them all.

~Michelle

Merry Christmas

Well the tree is up and that is it for this year. We set up the tree and decided that instead of opening up any of the hundreds of Christmas boxes in the shed we would just buy a couple of boxes of ornaments and some candy canes.. then we strung some popcorn.. first time we have ever done that and I loved it.. was a bit more time consuming than I had thought it would be.. but it was fun and sort of romantic.

Last year we did thousands of lights in the yard and on the house.. and decorated everything in the house.. all the rooms including the bedrooms. This year we are keeping it really simple.. just the tree. Three of the 5 kids have moved out and the other two are close to it... and they are all doing big things with the other side of the family.. so Dave and I have decided to just keep it simple.. maybe sneak away just the two of us and hide for a day or two.

Next year the plan is to double what we did last year and have a big 3 day open house party type thing... if that plan does not change it should be a lot of fun.. and you are all invited :)

Flooding

Today the local river reached records high as the snow melted on the mountains and the rain came down. Dave and I spent the day out driving around checking out the rivers between Stanwood and Arlington and watched them rise and flood over into the towns and over the roads.

I have uploaded some videos we took ( here ) and some pictures from the cell phone are ( here ) tomorrow I hope to do a better blog post with some of the better pictures from the real camera but now we are off to get the daughter since most the roads between our house and her friends have been shut off due to flooding.

~ Michelle

Favorite Quotes

I am working on some new ideas... not sure if they will come to be or not but just tossing some ideas around. One of the ideas calls for using quotes....would love to see your favorite quotes.

Here are some of mine ( just a couple as this list could be miles long)

If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change.

-- Buddha

A used material doesn't become a waste until you refuse to discover the potential in it.

-- Unknown

Life is the flower for which love is the honey

--- Victor Hugo

A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort. --- Herm Albright Would love to have you leave your favorite or favorites in the comment area. ~Michelle

Beach

This morning the alarm went off and it was pouring... not just raining.. I am talking 5 gallon buckets were being dropped full of water... and it was blowing like crazy. Dave had planned on riding the bike to work so we thought we should stay in bed this morning hoping it would at least slow down... did not seem to be in the plans... plus the neighbor showed up and the cat started meowing... rain or not it must be time to get up.

Taking the garbage can to the curb.. very short drive way... but I put on the rain coat and the rain boots.. still ended up soaking wet... figured there was no way I would be heading to the beach today.... even though I do not mind walking the beach in the normal amount of rain... the times where I am sure to be wetter than if I had gone swimming in the surf are just not too much fun.

Then all of a sudden it stopped raining... like a switch was flipped... and then the black sky parted.. and blue was shinning through... I am starting to hope... maybe there will be beach time.. but the tide is high and the beach unwalkable.. so I have to hope that for the next couple of hours the weather holds... and it does.. all of the sky is blue and beautiful and I am headed to the beach :) Had a nice sunny walk and came home about the time the sky started to darken back up.

More of my sea glass photos here

~Michelle

Mt Baker and a Christmas Parade

Saturday we bundled up both the kids ( 17 and 16 year olds, they do not really get "bundled" but I do have to remind them to bring a change of socks and to throw some boots in the back and bring a warm coat) into the jeep and headed out in search of adventure. I had not been tuned in much of the last week to anything local and had no clue that our very own town of Stanwood was going to be having an all day Christmas adventure of its own and it sounds like we missed a really good time. Next year I want to be sure and check that out.

This weekend we headed north.. then some east... and ended up driving to the top of Mt Baker. Lots of snow and it was so sunny that it was just a beautiful drive up the mountain. Everything was covered in snow and shinning, it was so pretty.

We then headed to Lynden, which is a dutch town really close to the Canada border.

Dave had read about a Christmas parade they had with semi trucks and tractors all lite up with Christmas lights. We got there at 5 and the parade was scheduled to start at 6. The roads were all blocked and a few people were sitting in chairs getting ready. It was dry but a bit windy and very cold. Not as many of the shops were opened as I would have liked to have seen.... but there was a bakery... we got some cookies and rum balls and hot cocoa.. wandered around some more.. a place was giving out small cups of soup and there were other places with hot cocoa and cider. by 6 the sidewalks were full and we found a spot to stand and watch the parade while enjoying our treats.

It was very small town feeling with lots of people and lots of floats in the parade. Fire trucks and police cars and semi trucks with big trailers covered in lights. Lots of different kinds of tractors with lots of lights. It was very pretty and well organized. One thing that it was lacking was some interaction with the crowd. Watching all the little kids out there freezing and yet so happy and excited for each of the new floats to drive past, waving and waving with huge smiles on their little faces. Then only one or two of the floats had people that walked along beside them.. a couple of the drivers waved but they were paying attention to driving. I understand that the days of throwing candy from the floats is past... it is just not safe to have kids running around in the road near the floats.. but I was sad to see even the floats with the people on them... not interacting more with the little kids... Grab a couple of local high schoolers and have them walk along with each float... wave to the kids... say hi... smile at them, maybe hand out candy canes.

All in all it was a wonderful time and I look forward to visiting the town again when it is not so crowded.... I wanted to try everything in the bakery and there were a few shops who's windows we could peek in that I think would be great to visit when they are open. Well worth another trip at some point.

On the way home we stopped and did the weekly grocery shopping and picked up pizza for dinner.... came home and watched a little tv with the kids and it was a fun relaxing day.

~Michelle

So Far This Week

This has not been a very busy week... I have spent a lot of time on the beach... Surprise :) Today was so beautiful.. warm and sunny... walked the beach for a couple of hours with a friend and we watched an otter playing in the water and then saw an eagle fly down and try to pick him up.. the otter was able to get away and seemed unhurt.. Eagle was angry and flew away pouting. ( or so it seemed. My friend has a cat that walks with her on the beach... I was worried about the eagle thinking the cat was lunch but the cats have been there for 8 years with no problems.

This has been an amazing week for collecting treasures on the beach.. heart rocks and wish rocks and cool shells and lots of sea glass. I have a bunch of ideas running around in my head... sometimes it gets like this where I have a million ideas, colors, shapes, and a mixture of beads and glass and shells and yarn and wood and wire and things I do not even know... all these projects just mixing around until I sit down and something happens... most often it is not what I think it will be either. It is always fun though.

I did get one new necklace listed... and I have had a couple of request for some items that I am looking forward to making.

The other really cool thing that I did this week is I "launched" a new blog I am working on with the help of a wonderful friend. It is called Coffee Tea and Recipes.. a place to share and talk about recipes. I would love if you would have a peek and follow us there and please leave a comment introducing yourself and share a recipe or two or hundreds. I am hoping this will be a place that my friends and family and people I do not know yet... will come and visit often. I would love if people share their recipes, stories, links, anything they would like to share.

Now I am heading to my kitchen to make some peanut butter cookies and finish up the chili that is in the crock pot for dinner :)

~Michelle

Road Trip to Leavenworth

The day After Thanksgiving and we headed over the mountains to play in the snow. Stevens pass was beautiful... not as much snow as we had hoped for... but just enough that was it so pretty and the roads were not bad. One of the best things is that half way up the mountain the cell phone service really starts to get bad... and the daughters attitude starts to get a lot better :) I can and do take her phone away from her.. but then she is mad at me and I get all that.. but when we go on road trips where the phones do not work.. the kids just seem to shift into a lot better moods only a few minutes after their phones die. Yesterday was no exception.... about 10 minutes after we lost service we all really started having some fun.

Headed up icicle road which follows the river... there are lots of camp grounds and a bunch of snow..... not enough that we have to worry about getting stuck or anything.. but just enough to have a lot of fun and to make everything beautiful. I have memories from when I was very little of camping up here with my grandparents.. not really clear ones.. but more feelings :) I do remember that when grandpa would catch fish in the river that they would get frozen in the 1/2 gallon milk cartons. I also think there are some hot springs around here.. but have no clue as to where... going to have to remember to talk to my cousin about this.

Anyway.. we attempted to build a snowman... but the snow was not wet enough for that .. we were lucky to get some handfuls of snow so there could be a little sort of mock snowball fight. I love being the one holding the camera.. they all know snow is not good for a camera so I pretty much was safe. Dave and Missy got into it... wish I was better at taking action shots but with laughing so hard and then the snow being so dry that when it was thrown it ended up looking like a cloud... I did not get too many good pictures of that. We did find a couple of big parking lot areas and we had some fun with the jeep in the snow.. doing doughnuts... round and round we went...the older I get the less my tummy likes those... but they were fun.. again.. I tried taking pictures and videos.. lol after the fact I know I should have gotten out of the car to attempt that...no way I could hold anything still while in the car and laughing.

After we were done playing in the snow we headed into the town of Leavenworth... found this great pizza place... Rudloof's I did not take too many pictures because I was really hungry... but the pizza slices were so huge that one would have been plenty. We got the crust with the cheese in it... it was really good.. I will go back there for sure. By now it is dark out and the whole town is lite up with Christmas lights.. there is Christmas music playing from the gazabo in the town center and kids sledding down the hill.... they have tents set up and are having a craft fair... we bundled up and heat out. First thing Missy saw was the Starbucks.. so our first stop... Black and white peppermint mocha with whip.

We then wandered around in the snow under the lights, watched the kids sledding for awhile and checked out the tents... then wandered up and down the streets going in and out of the shops. Before we left we sure to stop in at Rocky Mountain Chocolate for a treat. It was the kind of night were everyone stops and talks to everyone.. where people are paying attention and if you stop to take a photo everyone stops for you.... everyone was friendly and thoughtful and smiling and happy. It was my first experience walking around Leavenworth and I did love it :)

Started home about 8... it was snowing pretty good.. roads were a bit more slippery on the way home but not too horrible... and the best part was that there was really no traffic.. which is the scariest part for me.... some people really should not drive in snow no matter what. Lucky for us..... they all stayed home last night. Was a wonderful day all the way around!

~Michelle

Snow Snow Snow and Cold

It is cold.. and white! Happy Thanksgiving tomorrow :) It seems as if this time of year something weather wise happens often. Looking back over the years there are a lot of Thanksgiving weather issues. Monday it started snowing... and it dumped a couple of inches... now it is wednesday and it is snowing again.. just big drifty white flakes. All day Monday was dark and snowing and windy... not great for going outside... but yesterday.. I woke up and the sky was so clear and the moon was shinning bright. Even though it was low 20's... it was so sunny and I was sitting here looking out the window and wanting more than anything to head to the beach.

I threw on some big thick socks.... some long underwear... my boots a hat some gloves and off I went... The walk to the beach was a bit slippery.. I just stayed on the sides of the road while going downhill... it worked! The beach itself is always amazing in the snow... because the snow stops right at high tide. so if you stand just right.. it does not even look cold... looks like spring

but it is not... it was 20 degrees out there.. plus whatever the wind added to it... now.. as long as I was walking this direction it was not too bad at all.. almost warm.. gloves came off right away

(playing with the glass keeps my fingers warmer than gloves any day) The only part of me that was getting cold was my nose... it was freezing.... but... all good... treasure hunted down the beach a ways... and then turned around... and it was a bit colder...I know I should check the wind direction first.. and this time I even remembered noting it was blowing from the wrong direction.. but... I get treasure hunting in my head and off I go. The walk back to the dock was a bit colder... my nose thought it would freeze off.. and my cheeks were cold.. so I held up my hands and breathed into them.. warmed my cheeks and nose up.. but when it unfroze it became a bit drippy... worked out better to just let it be cold.

I found many treasures... and was not nearly as cold as I had thought I would be.. was a great day... today it is snowing a bit again... have that dark dreary snow sky... and I am just cold and ready for spring... heard there might be even more snow tomorrow before it warms up... I love fall and spring... not too hot.. not too cold... perfect weather!

This photo is a bit tilted... lol I need to take pictures before I am frozen and can't move.

We are still not sure what we will be doing for Thanksgiving.. ordered one of the premade dinners from the local grocery store.. a first for me... but with no oven and not knowing if we will be going to the mountains, the ocean or staying home... figured it was a safe bet. Dave is picking it up tonight on his way home from work.. with a few extras and no matter what we decide to do we will have food! Hope you all have a wonderful Turkey Day and get lots of food!

~Michelle

Lazy Weekend

Well this weekend was not very productive but it was a nice relaxing weekend and I did get some things done. Friday Dave had to work in the morning so I spent the morning on the beach collecting some really fun treasures, heard it was going to be a really cold day but it was sunny and warm and I ended up wearing my sweatshirt and rain coat tied around my waist on the walk back up.

Saturday Dave and I headed out to check out the hobby shop in town and make our Christmas lists. We also went to lunch and then stopped and did our weekly grocery shopping. I need to remember to shop more the first couple of weeks of November so that I don't have to deal with the stores the week before Thanksgiving.. way too many people in there for me. Since the daughter was out for the night we rented a movie ( Grown ups ) and made some pizza. The movie was ok.. not Wonderful but not Horrible.

Kitty cat (Jackson) enjoying the fireplace today.

Today was a stay home and be lazy day.... my only goal was to find the dinning room table again. When we did the remodel we did our best to think ahead and have a place for everything so that everything could go in it's place. For the most part we have done really good at that. When the house is gets cluttered up it ends up with all of us being a bit stressed out. The biggest problem we have is our "projects" my crafty stuff and Daves models... we do not really have anywhere that is just for that. Dave is really good at keeping all of his stuff in the boxes and just pulling out what he needs. I am horrible. I have two tall book shelves full of different boxes and everything is sorted... the problem is... I like to be able to see everything when I am working on something. As soon as I start on something I end up with every box coming off the shelves and getting spread out. I have my shelves in the boys room, which they only use 4 nights a month and they don't mind sharing.. until I spread things all over the floor and their beds. In a year that room will be ours.. both the kids rooms will be ours.... office and hobby room...woohoooo!

Todays Chore.... Before picture

This is the dinning room table.. under there somewhere... I did get everything put back into the craft room/boys room... and most of that is even back into the right boxes and on the shevles.. almost... will finish that tomorrow.

The table after

Keeping Busy

I have not been blogging on here too much this week, have been spending a bunch of time on the beach and even though I could come back and write about every walk on the beach... I am pretty sure if I did that ever day that people would not visit my blog very often.

An update on my people adventures on the beach: I have not seen the lady who asked me to leave since the I saw her last, but I did see a new person there. She was not "on" the beach but she was in the parking lot of the access. She did not say anything to me but when I got there she was in front drivers seat, she then got out and climbed in the back... then after a few minutes she was back in the front on the passenger side... this went on for awhile.. I gave up being nosy after a short time and headed down the beach... went a short ways and headed back the other way... when passing the parking lot... she was still there... still swapping seats. She did finally leave as when I came back after a couple of hours she was gone. Other than that the beach has been pretty calm the last few days.


A friend and I have been working on something the last few days, I am hoping that we are able to get it how we want it and to share it with everyone sometime this next week. I am having a lot of fun with it and am excited to share it. Now I will have to stop talking about it or I will tell all. Yes I am one of those people that has to shop on Christmas eve or I end up telling everyone what I got them.... or worse.. giving it to them months early.

This weekend is about working on that project and spending some family time with the kids. We rented all three of the Toy Story movies and are watching them together. Last night we watched One and it was great, brought back a lot of memories and was a lot of fun talking about all the things in the movie the kids noticed ( and us ) that we missed all the other times we watched it. With everyone being so much older they picked up on a lot more of the adult humor in the movie. Tonight is 2 and then we will either watch 3 after that or tomorrow. Also wanting to spend some time playing games today. We used to play board games or cards almost every night, now it has been months since we have. We might even break out the poker table and chips.

Weird Beach Day

Today was a weird day at the beach sort of... it started raining last night and rained until this morning... thought I would skip the beach today but then it cleared up and the sun was shinning. I took that as a sign, I did take my rain coat as it only seems to rain on me if I am at the far end of the beach with no rain coat. I am glad to report that not only did I make it all the way down but all the way back with no rain.. even had some beautiful sunshine!

I got down there and the tide was just starting to go out, which is perfect, well any time at the beach is perfect... this just assures me I can spend more time there :) I started down the beach looking for treasures... was a bit dark out but there were some beautiful things on the beach today. Only found one agate but it was a big one and has a cool white streak through it.. not sure what it is.. but it looks great. I also found a small ( dime size ) pink sea glass heart... treasures!

I saw a beautiful star pink star fish being left behind by tide and then as I went to grab some seaweed to stick over it (to hide it from the seagulls so they do not peck at it) one seagull flew right up and grabbed it.. the whole thing.. and then just sat there with it in his mouth.. no way he can swallow that.. and he has no teeth. I gave him a strict talking to about eating things that have no brains and that do not even stand a chance of getting away from him.. and of "eating" something he is not even going to be able to eat. Then I headed down the beach a bit further.

I did not go very far that direction because it includes some climbing over trees and I was just not in the mood today so I headed back to the dock. I passed the seagull again... he is still sitting there with the star fish hanging out of his mouth.. it has gone limp and now I am thinking he just sits there and waits for it to go all soft so he can fold it up and swallow it maybe.. I have no clue.. can not even imagine it in his tummy.

I walked past the dock/road home and down a little further since I saw a friend with her dog out... visited with them for a few minutes then headed back to the dock and headed home. As I get closer I notice there is a woman there, one I saw the other day for the first time. I smiled and said hi.. she gave me a funny look, I asked how she was doing, she turned around.. put her hand on her hip and said... "are you always here?" I said "not every day but a few times a week for sure" ok this is where it gets really good... she said to me " I really wish you would not come beach combing here ALL the time it leaves nothing for the rest of us" I am pretty sure that starfish would have fit in my mouth at this time ( if the seagull would have shared ) as I am sure my bottom jaw hit the ground. I do not know this lady and was not sure if she was joking or what was going on. She then says to me "I drive all the way out here from Stanwood (neighboring town) and thanks to you it is a wasted trip I am sure" ok so I sort of laughed.... she had to be joking right???? She says "this is not funny, this is a public beach and you are hogging it" I told her I was very sorry she was not finding the beach to her liking.. but that it is NOT a public beach.. that it is in fact private.. and that I DO have beach rights because I DO live here... and not only that but I DO have permission for the owners of the surrounding beaches and that is how I know where the good stuff is because they have shared with me. I then explained to her that she might want to check out one of the local state parks.

I am so not sure what her issues where... there are about 4 or 5 of us that walk on the beach regularly looking for treasures and none of us have ever had a shortage of things to find. Sometimes 2 or 3 of us will walk together and we are all able to find lots of goodies. In fact most often the best pieces are often found on the way back... walking in the sand stirs things up and often uncovers the best. I am sure this person is not very mentally stable...in the end I was not sure if I wanted to laugh or cry.. the beach is plenty big enough for all of us.... sharing it is one of the joys.

My First Collection

I guess I should start with what a collection is, and where and why. A collection is a group of items that have a theme that I have picked from artfire. It is a way to promote other sellers on artfire and a way to show off some things I have found that I like.

This is my first collection and I titled it ILY ASL which is I Love You! American Sign Language!

I found a lot of fun items on artfire that are in American sign language and are the ILY hand sign.

Having Gone through Seattle Central Community College and the interpreting program there and having spent a lot of time in the deaf community ASl has always been a big part of my life. All of my children signed long before they would talk and my daughter still signs very fluently.

I would love it if you would take a minute and visit the collection ( Click "View Collection" on the right hand side to see the full collection ) and check out these fun and awesome items. Clicking on the items themselves take you to that persons shop and you can explore more of their items. Leaving comments at the bottom of the collection is always welcomed.

ILY ASL

Curated By: MichelleBallard

ArtFire.com

Handmade Soap

Thank you,

~Michelle

New Creations

I had some ideas the other day on something I could do with the sea glass I find while walking on the beach. I wasn't sure it could be done and if it could I was not sure it would be something I could do. So I started looking for videos about different things on youtube to see if I could find anyone else doing it. There are people doing it but no videos about them that I could find. I did find some other videos about things that had to do with it so I watched as many as I could. I also talked to Dave since he had some experience with the type of thing I wanted to do. After all of that I was thinking that it was something I wanted to try and at least see if I can do it.


Now to find a place to buy the supplies... hmm.. craft store... no... hardware store.. no... a stained glass store.. yes. I needed copper foil tape... what size or color backing I had no idea.. so I bought the stuff the lady said would work great.. turns out it is not so great for everything I want to do.. but I am guessing she had not used real sea glass.

I want to wrap each piece of sea glass in this foil tape and solder around the outside so that it is then wrapped in a pretty silver casing and solder on a jump ring. This sounds so easy.. and watching the videos of people making memory pendants it looked super easy. One thing I did not take into account is that the sea glass is not square or flat or even the same thickness on one side as the other. I also had no experience soldering. In the videos.. they make it look super easy... you just "paint it on" not me... well not when I started... I was going for the "painted on" look.. but was using the dab at it and poke method and it was not working so well.

This was my first attempt... I was so proud of it... now I am embarrassed lol

I have now made a whole lot of pendants... and can really tell a difference from the ones I first made and the ones I am making now. I have learned a lot too... and I see the door open for learning so much more. I need to try some different types of copper tape.. I read there is a black backed one for using with clear glass... I am going to try that next. I have a lot of white pieces of sea glass and the copper tape gives the pieces almost a pink color.. which is beautiful.. but not a true color of the glass. It seems to me that black would show up even more than copper... but I have been told it wont... we shall see :)

I have started listing some of the items in my shop and hope to be listing more soon.

~Michelle

The Beach

"I am not afraid of storms: For I am learning how to sail my ship."Author: Eleanoor Roosevelt

In every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth. - Rachel Carson

"Ocean treasures left on the shore, Nature's gift to adore"

Author: unknown

"The tide always turns"

Author: unknown

"The voice of the sea speaks to the soul"

Author: Kate Chopin

I Did it... Almost

Today I started the second week of the "Couch to 5K" running plan. It is taking me a bit longer to get from one week to the next... so many things happen everyday and getting a schedule going is hard for me. We have 4 day weekdays and 3 day weekends around here.. to keep things balanced I really should be walking on one of the weekend days. I should have at least walked yesterday but I had some paperwork I HAD to get finished and I was just too focused on that. ( I now think if I had walked the paperwork might have gone better ) I seem to have a lot more energy after walking for the rest of the whole day... better than a nap by far.

So today I get on the treadmill and am pretty sure I am not going to be able to do the second week plan.. which is run 90 seconds/ walk 2 minutes, after having so many days off.. but I decided to give it my best and I was very surprised. I was able to do most of the running for 90 seconds.. there were a couple I cut short but they were all close but the last one.. it was just over 60 seconds. I think I did hear a couple of bad words a few times but I had the doors and windows shut so no one heard but me. Would have helped a bit if the music had been a bit better. Most the time I just turn on one of the music stations on the tv.. and have had pretty good luck.. but today I had the slowest songs.. they were just blah with nothing. I am going to need to work on getting some regular music set up.

~Michelle

Bad Commercial...?

There has been a lot of talk on kids and bullies and children who are killing themselves because of being bullied. When I did some reading about all of this online I have learned there is a name for children who kill themselves because of being bullied, Bullycide. That completely breaks my heart and rips at my insides.

There are so many links to so many stories of children who are being bullied and who are then taking their own lives that if I started posting links I would not be able to stop... just google teen suicide bullies and you will see.

I keep seeing this commercial and every time I see it I am more disgusted and disturbed that this company would do this... and that not only did they do it.. but they are still showing it.. from everywhere online I have seen, people are having the same reaction. Not only is it just beyond a stupid commercial that makes no sense.. the fact that this child is being chased by bullies and that mom is clueless is as clear as a bell. Who is this commercial marketed towards and why did they do this? I have spent the last couple of days trying to figure out what I can do to get them to stop showing this commercial and I am going to start by talking about it. Please leave your comments, what do you think about this commercial?

Weekend Work

This weekend we got a lot done.. and it is only Sunday morning. Friday we took MIL to her head doctors up north and since her hospital stay things have not been right... and I think we have figured out why. The hospital stopped some of her medications.. and said they would start her on new meds... but they did not. Basically her medications have been a bit messed up for the last month and now with getting them back on track hopefully things will start getting better again.

Dave and I then headed to storage and started sorting that. We wanted to go through everything and weed it all out again... every time we do this it seems we are able to get a load for the good will and a load for the dump. This time was no different. Weeding through it all and wondering what in the world we have been paying to store some of this stuff. We ended up with a large load for the dump and one for the goodwill. Then it was time to decide if we wanted to bring this stuff all home and find places for it.. or if we wanted to keep the storage and move some of the stuff from the house/sheds into it. We have decided to keep the storage for now and put some more stuff from the house/sheds into it that we are totally tired of tripping over but not ready to get rid of yet. We have a huge storage unit and it is only about a 1/3 full.... but we have had it long enough that it is an awesome price. We have had it long enough now that hanging onto it for another year or so until we know better what the kids will be doing.. just makes sense. We are going to offer to rent a corner of it out to my son for a lot less than he is paying for the one he has now.. save us both some money.

Now that we have narrowed the boxes down again.. we will be putting some shelves in there and we will be going through the boxes and really sorting and storing... will take pictures of what is in each box and label them all so we can look them up at home on the computer and will know where everything is without having to dig through boxes. In this sorting we hope to find some jeep keys.. and a dog tag.. and I am sure there is a couple more things we hope to find.

One thing that made me so wonderfully happy... we brought home all the clothes we had in storage... and... half of mine fit me... it is like getting brand new clothes.. been 5 years since some of this stuff fit... a bunch of "new" jeans and skirts and sweaters... I am so happy... the half that does not fit yet.. really gives me a goal to work for... lucky for me the stuff that fits now is great for fall/winter and the stuff I still need to lose a bit for.. are great for spring/summer. Means I have 5 to 6 months and by then there is no reason I should not fit into those clothes. Once I fit into those clothes that will be the smallest I have been since having kids. My goal is to be a size smaller than that. Which would be about as small as I would ever get and still be healthy... but if Ican get one size smaller than those then I will have the perfect excuse to go get ALL new clothes :)

Today I am not sure what the plans are.. I am thinking being lazy and relaxing. Two days of working in storage have taken their toll on both of us. Dave with his bad ankle hates the cement floor... and even though I only moved things around that were very light weight.. my shoulder is still screaming today. I think just having a do nothing day is a great plan for today.

~Michelle

A New Beach

Well it is not a new beach .. it has been there awhile but it is a new beach for me. I went out this morning with my girlfriend and instead of walking on the beach here she took me to another beach on the island, Tillicum beach. She used to live here and has some friends there. Beautiful beach and private. We saw a big black lab but no other people at all and no garbage. It was a beautiful morning for a walk on the beach. Found a bunch of sea glass and some shells and agates.

When I got home I spent some time on paperwork and started working on some orders for my shop. I opened it a week or so ago and have sold 2 bookmarks and have had an order for a set of 8 wine charms. I love making these and love that other people enjoy them too. *thank you guys*

On the workout news.... tomorrow is the first day of the second week.. so I will be increasing the running from 60 seconds/walking 90 seconds... to running 90 seconds/ walking 2 minutes.. I am expecting it to be very difficult... I know the first time I did the running 60 seconds I was not able to do it for the whole 20 minutes... but yesterdays I was able to do the complete workout and it felt awesome!

~Michelle

A Little of This and That

So today is a ramble day.. I do not have anything huge to report here.. but a few little things. Sunday we worked on the yard, trimmed up the front bushes and had a little fire to burn everything we collected this summer. Grass and yard is pretty much ready for winter. Still working on getting the area around the shed all cleaned up and graveled. The fire was great.. we roasted some hot dogs and it was fun.

Yesterday was Monday and it was the second day of the Couch to 5K workout for me. I made it through.. thought I would die.. seriously. Afterwards though I was feeling pretty good so I went ahead and did some sit ups. I am putting lots of focus on standing up tall.. shoulders back and down... tummy in. Well everything is a bit sore... some muscles are on fire... some calf cramps... shoulder is killing me... but nothing like my tummy last night.. it so freaked out. Time for bed and I could hardly sleep... from now on I am only doing the workout or the sit ups.. not both on the same day.

I ran my daughter around this morning for some appointments.. it is nice to get some time to visit with her... and then went and visited my MIL who seems to be doing ok. We talked knitting and looked at some patterns and picked out some yarn... I will be visiting her once a week and doing some knitting with her. I went and checked out the local knitting shop in town and love it... can see it doing some serious damage to my wallet but I do love it... it is also a great place to take MIL for a break... big open space that she can get around in.

Now I am making some dessert for Dave. He has been working really hard.. not only on work stuff but on helping me with a lot of stuff and I love him so much, he is so good to me that I love to make surprises for him.

Off To The Races

Last night we went to the races at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe. I had been to some bike races there before and then early this summer we went to some car races down south... but this was my first time to some demolition derby stuff.. which to me is not the same as the races. Races they all go fast to see who can cross the line first... and last night.. there was some of that.. but there was a LOT of who can put the biggest bang on someone else's car. Even though it hurt me to watch them banging into each other.. I LOVED it!

There were some stunts... they were ok.. not really my thing though.. and waiting for them to set them up and then clean up the track after.. sort of was a turn off for me. They did some hornet racing.. which was small cars sort of beat up that went around the track fast... those were fun... then they did some figure 8's. This was my first time watching that type of racing.. and those guys/girls are just 110% nuts. With the small cars they were exciting to watch.. no big crashes... then they had the school buses going at it.. those were really cool to watch.. then they added boats on to the back of the cars and buses and they all raced together. The thing is I did not get what that meant.... but what they do is they tie a boat ( no trailer ) to the back of the car or bus... most of them had regular old wooden boats.. one had a rubber boat...there were plenty of sizes of boats too.. and maybe they were not wooden.. but anyway.. so the boat is tied/chained onto the back of the car/bus and then these crazy people drive around the figure 8 (very fast) trying to slam into other peoples boats and the last person with their boat still attached wins. This is one crazy thing.. there were boat pieces and car pieces everywhere... I was laughing so hard. I loved it! Did not get video of the boat races was too busy watching them. Plan is to go to more races next summer.

~Michelle

New Shop Is Open

I finally got my new shop open online. I had wanted to open it last month but life happens and I just had too much going on. Now it is open but I am still going to be tweaking it and playing around with it. I want to add some more color and I need to learn how to use all the bonus things a pro account gets on artfire. At this time I still have my old shop open too but will be moving most of those items to the new shop and I also have some new items to add. You now can securely shop directly from my blog, on the right hand side in the rapid cart, and from my facebook profile. One of the things I love about this shop is that there is no need to sign up, you can shop just as you do most places online or in person. If you see something you love, you buy it!

~Michelle

Day 2 *ouch*

This is day of rest for the couch to 5k which means.. I am not on the treadmill... I am not running. Yet I am not going to do nothing on these days.... so today I did my sit ups and did some work with the resistant tubbing ( for the PT on my shoulder ) and then took of on an hour walk on the beach with the neighbor... yes I found some sea glass but mostly.. we walked ( pretty good pace) and talked.

Now I am doing some house cleaning... I was a little sore this morning in some muscles I am not sure were ever used before.. but now that I am cleaning.. bending and stretching... Ouch! I am very well aware now of the muscles I used yesterday that have never even been stretched at all before... and they are NOT happy. Even though it hurts a bit.. it is nice feeling some new soreness and knowing I am working out a new part of my body. Tomorrow I am do W1D2 and will see how it goes.

~Michelle

Weight Loss Wednesday ( W1D1 )

W1D1 is for workout one and day one for the couch to 5k (links below)

This last week has been good... we spent some time caching with some small hikes and are excited to get back into more hiking.. rain or not. We have all the gear for hiking in the rain and we are not sweet enough to melt so it should be fine. We also seem to have a LOT of fun when we are out playing in the rain. I am really looking forward to it. Found some great looking trails between here and Bellingham that I am looking forward to exploring more, there also seem to be a lot of caches along these trails :)

I also took up an empty gallon milk jug and filled it with water.. weighed it and learned I have lost a bit over 3 gallons.. which made me feel great. I have been stuck at this weight for awhile now and was looking for some new directions to help motivate me to get back to losing weight. I am now working towards adding another gallon of water to my collection :)

A friend of mine has started the Couch to 5K program and I have heard some great things about this so I went and spent some time reading up on it and have decided to give it a whirl. I am not looking to do any marathons or even to make running a big thing... ( I pretty much hate it, but have never really "ran" anywhere ever) I do LOVE the idea of being able to run 3 miles in 2 months. Ok.. not that it will take me 2 months to run it..(I hope) but that in two months if I follow this program I should be able to run 3 miles at one time.. which at this time seems impossible as the 1 minute of running this morning sort of killed me. Well not the first minute but by the end of the days workout I was thinking I might die. Now that it is done I feel great though... and I look forward to dying again in a couple of days. This is only done 3 times a week so for the other days I am going to do the floor and tube/weight workout. I will also be doing the hiking and regular walking too.

Still working on eating healthier... going to be having a lot less carbs.. which is my weakness... I love breads and pastas and I am going to hate this one. It gets really hard when we look at what we eat now and think about what we used to eat, a LOT of fast food.. super sized with refills on soda, and compared to that we should be super skinny now. From the lab work that has been done in the last year we KNOW we are getting a lot healthier which is the main goal.. and the fact that I can run at all on the treadmill...when we started 5 minutes of walking on it killed me....it would be so nice if the weight fell off as fast as it went on.

I keep reminding myself.. it is not about getting skinny it is about getting healthy.. and about changing our whole life style.. not just a quick fix that won't last... I want to be healthy and I want to the weight to stay off when it comes off.

Couch to 5K on facebook ( looks like a great place for support )

~Michelle

I LOVE the Beach!

School Started... and the youngest has moved to his moms full time. He was here every other week and now we will see him every other weekend... totally sucks in all ways... but.. if he ends up doing better at this school then I am behind him 100%. Personally I think that he will be taking his problems from this school with him until he admits what the problem really is. With that being said I do hope for the best for him.. and I will miss him horribly.. already am. With the other boy having moved out and the only one left here being our girl.... who goes to school and then to work every day... I am having a LOT of time on my hands at the house with no one here. After spending 12 hours cleaning the house yesterday... I am now lost as to what to do. Today I tackled the motor home and it is all clean so off to the beach I went.

Heart Rocks

I Love Love Love the beach... but.. not during summer time. I only went a few times this summer since every time I did go down there I would have a bad experience. Kids getting high on the beach... lots of garbage... so many people... lots of dog poops....bulldozers... just not a good time for me at all. So today I headed down there trying not to get my hopes up. I am happy to report that besides one spot that had a bit of garbage... that the beach is back :):):) I have learned this summer that I live on an island.. yes I knew that.. but... I had not really grasped all that it meant. Last year I had noticed that traffic was a lot worse in the summer... and this year I was rudely reminded that I do not own the beach and that I must share with other people who visit in the summer. So I have decided that I will visit the beach a LOT in the fall and winter and let others visit in the summer. I will also be more careful when I visit other places to respect that no matter where I am.. someone loves that space and is not happy they are having to share. I would never leave garbage, dog poop or a bulldozer, but I am one more person invading the space.

Drift wood star

Today was beautiful on the beach... I saw so many treasures. It was calm and peaceful and wonderful today. I took a bunch of photos, collected some shells, heart rocks and lots of sea glass. I sat and listened and smelled and looked... so very relaxing and calming. I am looking forward to many more walks this winter and many more treasures. I am also hoping to find some sort of work of some sort.... I just have way too much time on my hands right now and even with beach walks.. it is NOT enough. I am hoping maybe I can do a little bit of nanny type work again or something like that... maybe not full time but after camping with my sister and her boys last weekend I think I would enjoy spending some time with some younger kids again... I loved it when I was doing it before and I miss it a lot.

Yellow Sea Glass Treasure

Weight loss Wednesday... I am still the same.. have figured out that no amount of walking or eating less works if I drink on the weekends I just stay the same weight... no drinking for a couple of weekends and we will see what happens :)

~Michelle