10 on Wednesday.

1. I'm a day late. So sue me. :) We're kinda in full summer mode over here right now. I know I totally complained about there being NO summer in my last post and then all of a sudden summer showed up. So, I'm taking full advantage of it while I can!! The fog is already rolling in....
2. I'm going to see a Gastroenterologist tomorrow. I've been having tummy troubles for quite a while now (i haven't blogged about it because I hate being that girl who always has something wrong or some problem) but it finally got so bad last week, I couldn't handle it anymore and decided I really needed to get checked out. I had an ultrasound and apparently I have gallstones. I have no idea what this doctor will say tomorrow. I'm guessing surgery?? I kinda hope so, so that I don't have any more problems. But I kinda hope not, cuz I'm scared.
3. Because of my stupid stomach problem we almost didn't go to our church camp retreat last weekend. We haven't gone in the past two years because of different reasons so we were all really looking forward to it this year. Finally late Thursday morning, after much debate as to whether I should stay home or not, I got up off the couch and said: Let's GO! And we went. And it was pretty awesome.

4. Jake went right to fishing. I think he caught about 4 or 5 over the weekend. Pete is the 'teacher' for all the young boys. He brought 4 extra fishing poles so the other boys could use them. He's so patient and really enjoys showing this next generation of men all about living the outdoors man life. It's truly a gift he has. He helped our little neighbor Will (who turned 6 that day) catch this big monster! That kid was so excited!

5. Saturday they got to do the zip-line. That was so cool. Megan even did it all by herself! I don't know where I was, but I missed it and didn't get a picture.



6. We came home to a "heat wave" here in the bay area. Yesterday it was a smokin' hot 88* so we headed out to a local spot for swimming. I'd never been here before, but it was really fun. The kids loved it. There's tons of lifeguards, it's plenty shallow enough and there's lots of shade too. We'll definitely be going back there.

(it was super murky water though, because it was so crowded. I guess normally it's almost blue)
7. We're starting to enjoy lots of things from our garden. Last week we had our first zucchini and now this week, lots more! Sugar snap peas, carrots, green onions, & more zucchini. We just got our first little yellow buds on the tomato plants so in a couple weeks we'll have yummy home grown sunshine to add to our salads. MMMM!
8. Speaking of farming....we got our first egg from our chickens this week! It's so tiny! We also butchered 2 of our roosters. Somehow we ended up with 4 roosters, which is just way too many. So (cover your eyes if this sort of thing bothers you) Pete and Jake did the old school thing---and chopped their heads off. Really. I BBQ'd them up the next day and.... It tastes like chicken! Free range, organic chicken. ;-)

9. We also lost 2 chickens this week. Pete had the brilliant idea to let them stay out of the coop all day. We went to round them up and several were missing. We finally found all but 2.....we did however, find evidence of a fox. :(
10. We're planning our 4th of July BBQ next week. Does anyone have a suggestion for a dessert? I'm not necessarily going for the red, white and blue theme, but that wouldn't be bad either.

Impress your friends, make bread!

First of all...I'm fine. :) Thanks for asking! I just haven't felt much like blogging lately. We've just been going on about our day-to-day and nothing real exciting has been going on. Trying to figure out what summer is going to look like around here. Though, I think I'm beginning to realize that summer and Oakland in the same sentence is somewhat of an oxymoron. My entire life summer has meant tank tops and flip flops; swim suites and Popsicles; hot, hot sidewalks and baseball and BBQ's. It's just not quite like that here and I'm trying not to be Debbie Downer about it but..... well... I'll just stop. Technically it's not even summer for another week and half, right?

Anyway here's what's going on around here...
*I made bread! Well, I've made lots of bread before. Megan and I made yummy pull-apart cinnamon bread a few weeks ago.


Dang that was good. I've also made pretzels and pizza dough and even full fledged french bread with the 3 rising and kneading times. But I picked this book up at the library this week..Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

WOW! seriously? This is so easy. It's like less than 5 minutes a day and it's GOOD. There is just nothing like homemade bread. We had our friend Joe over for dinner Wednesday night and I threw a baguette in the oven and served it up warm with homemade spaghetti. He took one bite and looked over at Pete and said, "Dude....she cooks like this every night? Do you know how lucky you are?" Ha! I'm sorry, but that made me seriously happy. So try this method out. It's super, super easy and yields great results. I can't wait to try other variations.
*Jake made a swing. He got some rope and a board and with the help of his dad hung it up in the tree next to the driveway. It's definitely the new favorite thing around here. And of course they both fight over it.

*We went bowling. That was super fun. I really love bowling. Did you all know I took bowling as my PE credit in collage? It's true. I thought it would be and easy A cuz I'm super lazy. Anyway the kids had a great time. Jake loved it. Megan could have cared less I think, but she had fun. I beat Pete...and really....that's all that matters, isn't it? !!

* Our garden is growing like crazy! We've already enjoyed some basil and cilantro and just this week we have our first zucchini! I can't wait to eat it. It's just about ready to harvest. We also have a gang of tomatoes, peas and carrots. For some reason our green beans and bell peppers didn't do so well. But for putting seeds directly into some pretty crappy soil, I think we're doing pretty good!
*Hmmm...other activities have been going to the zoo, going to the in-laws for memorial day where it SNOWED, Pete's been cutting down trees so we now have a better view out our living room window for the 4th of July fireworks. We're planning to have party for that. Oh and hey! guess what?! Our house finally sold. What house, you say? The house we moved out of a year ago. hmmhmm. It's a very long and drawn out story that I don't really plan on sharing on the internet. But I'll just say this: FINALLY! We are so relieved that it's finally over. And we're getting closer and closer to being debt free!
*So I guess maybe it's not all that boring around here after all. Maybe I should blog more so I don't overwhelm you all with these random bits!