PAD 6/26/12-6/30/12

So it looks like another catch-up post for me again. I'm having a hard time figuring out a good time of the day to sit down and blog. I used to try and do this in the morning after my prayer time and before Michelle and I started our school work and chores, but this time of year, I try and get outside and get the gardening done and take our walk early before it gets too hot. The evenings are hard because we live in the boonies. You see, living in the boonies means you are far away from internet services and then your connections are slow-especially when everyone else is using the same connections. And uploading photos means even slower connections. On that note, one thing you may or may not know about my dear husband--he's a gamer. Yup, some guys like football, some like cars, some like hunting, mine is a gamer. That's how he relaxes-blowing something up or going on a quest. And, frankly, he's not very happy when his shots miss or his quest is slowed down because I'm trying to upload photos. I like to keep my man happy, so I try my best not to interrupt his game time. Maybe I'll have to start getting up a bit earlier so I can work it in, or just do my chores later in the evening. Anyway, I have been given permission to do some uploading as he is currently studying and doesn't care one whit how fast or slow our connection is, so I better hurry up and get these photos on here before he's done. :o)

6/26/12
I have two pictures for Tuesday. First, here's how our tie-dyed shirts came out. Pretty cute, I think. Of course, the girls' smiles make anything look cute. :o)

Secondly, we had an unexpected trip to the Mall of America. Some friends that were stationed in Japan with us are currently on their way across country as they change duty stations, so, since they were going to be so close, we met them at the MOA for a couple of hours of fun and catching up. Angel is the one screaming in pink. ;o)

6/27/12
I know I left y'all hanging about the curtain tie-dye experiment. ;o) I took one of our sheets, cut it in half so I could do two different colors and then dyed it. I was trying for an ombre look where the color fades from dark to light so I accordion folded the fabric and simply laid it on top of the dye. I can post pics if anyone is interested in seeing how I did it. Anyway, after dying, I sewed the two colors together and made simple curtains out of them.

As you can see, Michelle is happy with them.

6/28/12
Day two of curtain makeover. I used some of the extra fabric to make some flowers and tie backs for the curtains. Michelle and I also did a lot of work outside in the yard trying to get things cleaned up a bit. I'll post pictures of that sometime next week...maybe.

6/29/12
Friday Michelle worked a bit on finishing up some of her school work for the year and I spent some time in the kitchen on a couple of cake projects. We also spent time outside gardening. We should be harvesting some beans and peas some time next week. Yum! We decided to get some grocery shopping done after Mike got home, and then we stopped by his mom's house to help her with a couple of projects. We've had a lot of rain this year, and everyone is harvesting their hay right now. This field was amazing. Sorry for the blurry shot, I tried to get this while we were driving.

If you click on these, you can see them much better.

6/30/12
And, finally, today, Mike spent most of the day working outside. It was a little warm, but he was working in the woods in the shade, so I don't think he got too hot. Although he probably lost a pint of blood to the mosquitoes. This is what he was working on.

He's building a deck at the top of Michelle's zipline. It's 8 x 14 so there is plenty of room for us to build a little play house up there later. Do you see the table in the foreground? That's what they kids were using to get on the line. It's pretty sturdy, but probably not the safest thing when there's 6 or 7 climbing on there. Besides, this project is great practice for the work we are going to be doing over at the kitchen, hopefully later this summer. 

I was in and out of the house. I helped him a bit, but spent most of the day in the kitchen working on "critters". I have another barn yard cake to do and wanted to get a jump start on the figures since we will have company next week. I was also working on several other cake projects at the same time, but didn't get any pictures yet.

I still have naked sheep, and albino cows, but they're almost finished. Too cute!!