Many years have passed here in Spokane, Washington when the weather turns from hot to freezing cold and we are deprived of the wonderful in-between seasons. I am beyond happy to report that this year we have gotten all four seasons, and fall hasn’t been forgotten by mother nature. Papa and I decided to go to Manito Park to soak up all the splendid colors.
The temperature has gradually cooled down giving the leaves a chance to change colors before falling.
There are many other gardens at Manito Park and it’s all FREE!
Papa officially soaking up the splendor
The cutest tree I’ve ever seen!
When I asked Papa, “how much do you love me?”he said with his arms wide open…”THIS MUCH!”There are huge Koi fish in the pondNow this is an awesome autumnPark bench to ponder life? Or just a place to take a load off.Well, Papa thought it was funny!After doing a lap around the garden we worked up an appetite and decide to get Panda Express for lunch
We stopped at the Duncan Garden on our way out. Soon all the flowers will be gone, but there are still a few bloomingMany people run laps on this trail that goes around the gardenHey, there’s Papa, walking through the perennials
They have a map of all the different roses in the rose gardenDuring the summer there are roses as far as the eye can seeI found a few roses still going strong
miniature rose
All squirrels in the world I’ve named Henford, so when you see your next squirrel say hey Henford, what’s up! He’ll give you this look saying, “How do you know my name?”
I’ve named this flower…Pretty.What a cool color this guy is! Oh, I just love flowers.I can’t get over the viberant color of this burning bush. Happy happy overload of fall colors. Yahoo!Heading down the steps to go get food with PopsClose up picture of the foliage on the rockMy patient Papa waiting for me while I take pictures! What a great day we had just soaking up the scenery!
Being part of something for a good cause is always a rewarding experience.
We had the opportunity to be a part of the Memory Walk, Walk to End Alzhiemers at River Front Park in Spokane a couple weeks ago.
The weather was wonderful and thankfully there were hundreds of people who showed up to participate. We plan to do it again next year and hope to get our friends to join in. We encourage you to join your hometown Memory Walk!
Mitch’s son Elijah, on his first ever long road trip, drove over from Port Angeles, Washington to spend some quality time with us last week . We had no plans to start a huge project while he was visiting, but the boy’s a ball of inspiration!
Who? Me!
We’d gotten gravel delivered for the driveways because of floooding issues in the spring.
They weren’t little puddles in front of the big house, it was a lake where the driveway once was, with water halfway up the tires so you would have to wade through the water to get to your car or to the house. It really needed to be done. While Eli and I were leveling out the gravel in the driveway, our walkway became a topic. When it rains, we end up adding bricks ontop of the walk just to make it through the standing water, or hanging onto the fence while trying to leap over the pond. We’ve talked about replacing the walkway with pavers, so while Mitch was at work, what better time to tear up the entire sidewalk and surprise him when he got home!
What did we get ourselves into?
It shouldn’t take too much to get this thing done….. Warning; I do not, and probably never will, have a true grasp on the time it takes to complete a project.
For all the work I’d created for him, Mitch just came home after work and started in on the project. What a man!
I am so grateful that Mitch loves me like he does, especially my inability to realistically understand the magnatude of time involved with projects around the house. It goes so fast in my mind, the idea is easy, but when reality hits, wow, the time and work involved always surprises me. Our family joke is to take my estimation of time to complete anything and mulitiply it by 3, then if it’s a big project add 3 more days and it’s a more accurate time frame.
“She thinks we can get this done in a day, Son”… “That’s funny, Dad”
Papa keeping us in line from the sidelinesWe didn’t even know we’d be using some of the driveway gravel to finish our other project
Our plan is to add onto the pavers next year, go around the trees and finish what we started.
Charlie testing out our progress
Now Mitch’s masterpiece begins
Seems so easy to complete in my head, should only be about 8 hours to finish everything next year…ok, guess that means it’ll be more like 24 hours, and 3 more days. Oh Yikes.
Four days later project walkway is complete. Thanks guys for making it happen.
Having Eli here with us was a true blessing, just seeing him enjoy the company of Papa, soaking up the quality time with is his Dad and showering the dogs with love and affection makes the walkway full of wonderful memories already. Thanks Eli!
Mitch beaming with pride of the young man his son’s become
Everything in a house seems huge after living in an RV, especially our oven. Just being able to fit a regular size baking sheet in the oven is exciting. Lately I’ve been privy to a couple things that do GREAT in the oven, you just wouldn’t think it.
BACON!I’ve always avoided cooking bacon, its such a mess, all the grease, the splattering, the popping, the burning pain when grease finds its way onto my skin. I feel like I need safety goggles and welding gloves just to make bacon. It’s not a simple process…until our friend was cooking some in the oven. She said there’s never a mess, the bacon doesn’t curl and it cooks just right. Wow was she right! It is so awesome and easy! We line our baking sheet with foil, turn on the oven to 400 degrees, lay the bacon flat on the baking sheet and put in oven for 15-20 minutes. We lay the cooked bacon on paper towels for a couple minutes after it comes out of the oven to soak up the remaining grease. BLT’s here we come!
FAJITAS! Chop up everything as you would normally and put it all in the oven! I found a wonderful oven cooked chicken fajita recipe at tasteofhome.com.
CREAM CHEESE WONTONS! I found the best recipe at thepioneerwoman.com. Others may call them rangoons, I’ll stick with the word wonton, it’s more fun to say “what up wonton!”
I have to admit, we used our deep fryer to make these delicious mouth-watering, keep you wanting more wontons, but if you click on the link to Ree’s recipe down in comments, someone named Leslie uses the oven at 375 degrees to make them.
Our wontons looked like egg rolls but it didn’t matter because they were so good and worth the time it takes to make them.
Dont forget to use the Sriracha sauce, it’s our new-found hot sauce!
If you want to have Spicy Thai Noodles with your wontons, check out this wonderful recipe !
I’ve saved the best and most rewarding for last, the super yummy Cream Puff! I’d never made them before, it was fun and exciting to see how they turned out and boy did they turn out great!!
melting butter and watergotta have the eggs ready to mix in at onceafter adding flour and salt to the butter and water
It really does get stickyI love that they don’t have to be perfect
the second I took them out I poked each with a toothpick, even at that, one fell flat. Gotta let that steam out ASAP
The filling is so light and delightfulYippee! I made pastriesI used a cake decorating tip with a gallon size zip lock. Just clipped off a bottom corner and wahoo. The chocolate is Hershey’s Chocolate Syrup
If you want to make them yourself I recommend the recipe from allrecipes.com, make sure you use ALL the tips from mommyfromseattle, after reading reviews I followed her suggestions and it turned out awesome, otherwise they may be a flop. Yahoo for yummy food! Good luck!
With all the cool accent furniture out there, I decided to find the perfect project chair at a yard sale. I searched every weekend for just the right one, at the right price. Thankfully, I found it a couple of months ago, and with the help of the best bartering father in the world, I got it for $2.00!
Three cheers for my project chair…
I was surprised at how heavy the chair was, and hoped there was hidden gold in the lining. I told pops and he broke the news that it wasn’t gold making it heavy, it was oak, a hard and heavy wood. I’d find out how tough that oak was later in my project! I was thinking I could just buy some fabric, stain the wood, and all done. Easy enough, right? Wrong! The previous owner smoked in their house and this chair stunk something awful, not only the fabric, but the foam and the wood! Oh, boy. Have you priced foam and fabric lately? Yikes!
As I took the chair apart I labeled each piece of fabric to use as the pattern for my new material (got that gem from the internet! ) and I took pictures so I would know how it used to look.
Taking out all the staples from the wood took hours and it caused a few blisters. Sanding was easy and I felt like it would be smooth sailing from then on….until the first stain. I really liked how dark and shiny it looked so I decided not to wipe it off. Bad choice… once again I looked it up on the internet and they said that if you don’t wipe off stain, it will peel and look wonky (official word). So, 45 minutes after applying the stain I head off to the shop to strong-arm the gooey almost dried stain off the chair! Guess there are directions for a reason. Three more stains in the next couple of weeks and it’s finally the color I like.
Stained and starting with new foam
I was lucky to find my fabric at the store in the misfit section at a great price of $5 a yard! Unwilling to spend anymore money than necessary I decided to wait and find the foam at a yard sale. Believe it or not, the next weekend at a yard sale I found 2 big black bags full of foam for $5.00! Yahoo!
cutting the foam
After being un-motivated for weeks I decided that I just had to get it finished, and so on the anniversary of my mom’s passing, in honor of her unwavering ambition, I would get this project done. Cutting and stapling the foam went smoothly and I was super excited to get the fabric on. That would be the best part, the cherry on top….so I thought. The oak would not work with me, it was so difficult that I went through a whole package of decorative nails and only used half, because they kept bending and buckling.
Trying to fold and manipulate the material was just not fun. After 6 hours, my back burning in pain, the resolve I began with was hanging on by a thread. I spent 45 minutes trying to do one side panel by myself and after I got the last nail in I flopped onto my back and let the tears of pain and frustration stream down into my ears and the back of my neck.
The side I tried to do myself
My darling husband made it home from work, pulled me into his loving arms, gave me the sympathy I needed and in 15 minutes we got the other side completed.
The side Mitch helped me with
Sometimes, we all need somebody and it’s ok to ask for help in those times.
It doesn’t look like I thought it would, it wasn’t simple, not perfect, and still needs some work…. sounds just like me…. I guess I really did find the perfect project.
Goin' Road Trippin' 