Con Familia

My uncle and aunt passed through this area last week. Haven't seen them in years, so we went to meet up with them in down town Seattle for dinner. Auntie Beth and Uncle Melvin John don't have grandkids yet so they were trying to lure our kids back to California with them. My son was getting bribed with promises of attending football and baseball games by my aunt. We had a blast, talked about growing up on the island and memories. My uncle was basically a teenager while I (and a lot of my cousins) were elementary school age. We laughed about all the stuff he and his age group made us do. Funny to talk about and remember, but thinking about it, kind of surprised I survived my childhood. I remember once him and my other uncle put me in a large towel and them holding both ends, swung me around and upside down using centripetal force to keep me in the towel. They got beat for that particular one.....

Garden Update

I decided to post a bit of an updated image from the garden. This was taken a few days ago. It's pretty much crowded now. I have a tomato forest and I think the zucchini are looking monstrous. This was pretty much my, "How much can I squish into this small corner" project. In case you forgot what it looked like when I started, see below.

Beach

So, we went to the beach. No wind, so, no kites. But, Daddy and little man went for a round of rock skipping lessons. Girlie and I looked for shells. Ran around a bit. A few pictures. As you can see, girl didn't really want to pose...at ALL.

Shaping up

Finally decided to warm up here. We are starting to have blooming stuff in our yard. Here are some iris. Funny story. The first time we got blooms off of the iris (which I got from my sister in law), I only had dark purple flowers. Second time around, a renegade yellow one appeared. This year, there is one that is two-toned. Purple and white. I wish you could see the colors up close. Unfortunately, I don't have that kind of fancy camera. Some other flowers that are blooming include a columbine, also known as a granny's bonnet. I didn't have any forethought. It's smooshed between iris. Going to have to move it later. The lilac bush, which I whacked the dickens out of this past fall, is blooming too. There is also a weirdly placed wisteria. It's next to the power pole and always climbs up it. Which is, in my opinion, a fire hazard as well as inconvenient for maintenance people. I wish it was transplant able. It's too big and old though, so I just whack what climbs up the pole.

The part that was really a lot of work is the vegetable and herb corner. NOW there was some major work. I mentioned it before, but here is a rundown of what I have. Herbs: 2 types of basil (green and purple), 2 types of mint (pineapple and apple), chives, cilantro, lemon balm. Vegetables: Corn, pumpkins, 3 kinds of green beans, zucchini, heriloom tomatoes, onions. There is also some sunflowers that my sister in law gave me as well. Hopefully, they thrive and I will have veggies in a few months.

Planting

So, the big plan is to grow vegetables. Cleaned out corner of the yard. Took a bit of digging, mostly by hubby. I weeded and degrassed and worked in I think 50 lbs of steer manure. If all goes well, in a few months I will have corn, zucchini, tomatoes, beans, sweet pumpkin as well as a few herbs. Here is hoping my thumb is green enough to plant from seeds rather than seedlings like what I did in prior year.

Happy New Year and Stuff

We got both kids scooters for Christmas, among other things, but yesterday was the first time we could take them out due to the snow. We had them in the front of our house for a little bit, but it was a bit sloped in areas, making it difficult for the little man to get the hang of it. Girlie has 3 wheels, so it wasn't that big of a deal in terms of balancing, if she would only learn how to steer it would be all good.














Since it was hard for them to get a handle on balancing on sloped pavement, we took them to our church parking lot. Which, you can see, still has piles of snow left over. Scootering took a back seat to climbing the last vestiges of the previous snow storm. This is all that was left of THAT. This was our little path from the front door to our cars from last week. Yes, more than a foot.

Pumpkin Mania

What does one do with pumpkin? Well, lots of things. My wonderful sister in law gave me fresh pre baked and mashed pumpkin puree in convenient little baggies. I already made a batch of pumpkin ice cream and tonight found a lovely pumpkin apple raisin bread recipe (If I had them, I would had added pecans). So, since hubby was out for the evening, I got to baking. The recipe called for one cup of pumpkin puree, no sweat, except, the baggie had 2 cups worth in it. I could either get messy and try to separate out 1 cup, or just double the batch. *Grimace* I doubled the batch. What DOES one do with EIGHT mini (although they really ain't that mini) loaves?!!!! Thankfully, my son likes it. Girlie pants will take some convincing to try anything that isn't a chocolate chip cookie or an oreo. It's really good warm, I am looking forward to eating it with coffee. 2 pumpkin baggies down.... uhhh.... at least 3 more to go. =)

Autumn

Last week went with a group of ladies from my Church to go visit an orchard in Cashmere, Washington. My sweet sister-in-law thought that in recent happenings of stress in my life I needed a bit of a girlie get away so she signed me up. Had a tour of a pear orchard, hay ride, apple tasting, and an outdoor lunch underneath beautiful turning leaves with the smell of ripe fruit dancing in the air. Lunch consisting of apple salad, apple chicken spread, apple pie and apple cider was served buffet style. After that we had a one hour jaunt in the next town of Leavenworth which is Bavarian themed. Fun times. Here are a few tiny pears in the hand of one of the owners. And here is a picture of me and my sister-in-law on the hay ride. We may share the same last name, but appearance wise we are pretty gosh darn different.

Guam Visit

Went to Guam for about 8 days for my Nanay's, Grandma's funeral. It was a sad time, but she lived a pretty long and full life. That was why I flew back. It was pretty amazing seeing all the relatives there that either have been there or flew back specifically for this occasion. When I think about it, I left the island over 12 years ago. Some things haven't changed, like the weather. Man, it was hot and humid and rainy. But, that is what sustains plants like these orchids that practically grow by themselves. These (which is just one of several varieties) for example were in my Uncle's yard. His wife was the one who raised them but she passed away years ago and they still flourish without any care other than the occasional pruning of dead leaves. It was the rainy season too. Funny, everyone kept telling me not to get wet and to take a shower after getting wet in the rain 0_o. I kept saying, "It's WARM rain for goodness sakes, not cold like where I live now, it really won't hurt me." The flea market hasn't changed either. The place where it is held has been moved, but still the same atmosphere of vegetables, fresh seafood (you know the fish and shrimp is fresh if it is still twitching in the boxes)various clothing, food stalls and people. Plus, the bonus of having to get up at 5:30am to be at the beginning of it.

For all that things have not changed, a lot has changed. For example, some waterfalls that we had to hack through with a machete to get to are now all paved with amusement parks and tourist stalls. What was once free to just walk or hike to now costs money to pass through the gates. *shakes head* My relatives have changed too. Those who teased and tormented me and my cousins growing up now have families of their own and we are the ones doing the teasing to their kids. Regretful that it had to be a funeral to get the majority of us to fly in from various parts of the world, but I am glad I got to spend time with my family. Especially my mom who was the one who took care of "Nanay". Although she is already making plans to visit my sister in Hawaii this December and next year plans to spend weeks visiting me and her "apos" (grandkids) here in Washington as well as visiting some other relatives in California. Looking forward to seeing her soon.

Big Changes

A few months ago I got the idea to donate my hair to Locks of Love. Of course, when I researched this I had to have it at least 10 inches, no damage... blah blah blah. Finally long enough to cut off. This is me right before my haircut. I mean, literally just 30 minutes before. My sister in law took the picture as I went out the door. Why my sister in law? Because she graciously responded to my last minute request to watch the munchkins since I made a last minute arrangement to cut off my hair. I tend to get an idea in my head and then chomp at the bit to get it done ASAP. Does this make me a tad bit obsessive? Anyway, being like this at times does have it's adavantages, like, no time for regret. Besides okay, it will only take 5 years to grow again, right?











I get home and little man runs down the stairs saying, "Cool hair, Mom." Girlie pants points to my head and says, "Where's my hair?" She gets her possesives mixed up still. Here is what it looks like now. Huge change, right? Thankfully, Hubby approves. I feel a bit light headed, haha.

Totally Random East meets West

I took this picture for fun a couple of weeks ago and totally forgot about it. As I mentioned before, it's that time of the year where local fruits are in season. We got a bunch of strawberries (on the left durrrr), which is grown locally. A couple of days ago, we hit our local Asian type grocery store for, for, uhm, I forgot what for, BUT I saw some fresh lychees. Most people probably have tried them at Chinese and Japanese restaurants, but those are canned and soaked in syrup. Fresh, they have a rough, somewhat hard yet thin skin, which is easy to peel. The edible part of the fruit itself is white, and it has one pit, like a peach. It's very sweet and has a slippery texture and is a tiny bit firmer than the flesh of say, an apricot (who knew this would be difficult to describe). One interesting side note, if I eat a lot of these on a fairly empty stomach, I start to have the aftertaste of alcohol. I think my sense of smell and taste are a tiny bit above normal.

The ONLY early memory I have of this fruit from back in the Philippines is when I was 15. My dad bought a huge bag from the street market, maybe 3 lbs or so. This is my Grandpa's favorite fruit. Of course, my Grandma told him not to eat too many, he would get a stomach ache. He just kept right on eating and eating and finished almost all of it. He then... of course.... got a stomach ache. Grandma had no sympathy.

So, for hubby's birthday earlier this month, I was supposed to make one of his favorite deserts, cheesecake. I did not have a spring form pan, so I kept delaying and delaying. Also had several busy weekends and what not. Finally gave up and just put it in a regular pie pan. The recipe was such that it took 2 pie pans rather than one springform. Not that I think hubby will complain about this much. Of course, little man and girlie pants helped prepare by putting the graham crackers in the food processor and little man helped "clean up" the bowl of the cheesecake filling.So here is the result, caramel topped cheesecake with graham cracker pecan crust. I took a picture of one of them. The other is already 3 slices empty.

Farmer's Market

It's that time of year again when fresh produce start coming up. Today we went to the farmer's market in our area and I saw some poppies, at least, I THINK they are poppies of a color I haven't seen before. So, I wanted to take a quick picture. My daughter's hand got caught in the shot and even though it was an accident, ended up looking pretty cute.

We got the usual kettle corn, caramel corn and something new.... shave ice, coconut flavored for the the kids, at least, it was supposed to be for the kids. Daddy and Mommy had some of it. Little girlie wasn't too keen on it, and little man liked it, but the coldness threw him off a bit.

Garden

The weather is finally nice enough to get a little bit of yard work done. Unfortunately, I have kind of let it "go" for the past 3 years.


I planted a few things the past years, like iris and columbine, some lipstick plants, three types of lavender, gerber daisies and tulips. My upkeep has been sadly lacking. Thankfully, God is forgiving and still blessed me with a few splashes of color despite my neglect. Here are some pictures I took just this morning. I spent an hour and a half and maybe progressed 2 feet in weeding and removing invading grass. I haven't pruned the lilac bush in three years. There were a LOT of dead branches. This thing is flippin' tall, maybe 10-12 feet? Anyway, really tired so I stopped the weeding/ de-grassing of the bed for now. I still have 5 feet by 2 feet to do as well as the corner (roughly 4 feet by 2 feet) were I am removing gravel and MAYBE planning a herb patch.

April Snow?

It's supposed to be Spring, correct? Complete with Spring flowers and warmer weather, right? Apparently, the weather didn't get the memo. Even though last weekend was in the 80's, this weekend it is snowing. As I am typing this, snow is melting off my hair. I just had to dash outside to take a few pictures before the light faded. The few tulips that I planted are kind of buried right now. Here is also a picture of the view from my front porch. Yes, that is a holly bush. Although, from it's size it seems more like a holly tree.