Another year has flown by!

Today is my birthday!!  I love birthdays!  I have always been one of those people who has loooong birthdays.  Meaning, they usually start a few days before the actual day and end days later.  LOL  I love that!

Friday night Chris and Maggie took me out to dinner, Mexican food.  I had a delicious Shrimp Cocktail, and then I was surprised with a new camera.  Chris bought me my Nikon for my birthday a couple years ago, but I have wanted a small camera for convenience.  So he bought me a Canon PowerShot.  I have been a snapping fool since I got it.

Saturday we went shopping at the Hardware store.  They have an awesome Garden Center.  Yes.  This was my idea of fun and exactly what I wanted to do!  I ended up getting some beautiful Gardenia plants and some English Thyme to plant under my front living room window.  Can't wait until they bloom.  Chris and Maggie took me out to lunch.  I had a wonderful French Dip Sandwich (my favorite!) and some french fries that were out of this world!  Here is a picture of my little beauty while we were waiting for our food:

My parents came up on Sunday and gave me my birthday present. After they left we went shopping and I bought lots of new clothes. (thanks mom and dad!)  This was big for me.  I have been waiting.....and waiting to by new clothes because I keep thinking I'm going to lose weight and don't want to waste money. Well, I bit the bullet anyway.  It's nice to have new clothes.  :)

Then Sunday night we had a "block party".  Everyone brought meat and a side dish and we BBQ'd.  Had a lot of fun, but it was a late night.  Maggie had a blast.

Today is my actual birthday.  I spent the majority of the day with my favorite girl.  My friend and her daughter stopped by for a bit. Chris came home from a side-job and took us out to Chinese food for dinner.  YUM!  We had:

Won Ton Soup

Honey Walnut Prawns and Asparagus with Beef

and Combination Rice

While there I found out I was born in the Year of the Goat.  I can't help but think that is just another sign that I need  a few Nigerian Dwarf Goats!  I kinda laughed at what the year of the goat says:

Except for the knack of always getting off on the wrong foot with people, the Goat can be charming company. Your are elegant and artistic but the first to complain about things. Put aside your pessimism and worry and try to be less dependent on material comforts. You would be best as an actor, gardener, or beachcomber.

Now after all this I was SUPER stuffed.  But, not too full for Rainbow Birthday Cake!  Check this out!

Whodda thunk a cake made with Diet 7Up would look so fun and taste so yummy!

Anyway, turning 43 isn't all that bad!

Euroepan Starling

Yesterday one of my cats was sitting by the window very intently looking into the willow tree that is right outside.  I slowly opened the blinds and I saw a European Starling sitting pretty much right next to me.  The sun was shining brightly on it and it reflected some beautiful colors!  I looked the bird up on What Bird and found a recording of what it sounds like when it is singing.  Since my computer is right next to the window I turned on the sound and turned up the volume.  The bird outside kept "talking" to the recording.  It was such a beautiful sound!  If you click here you can here it too!

Egg Geodes, pt 2

Day 9.  This has been an interesting project!  A lot has happened since Day 1!

*Click on pictures to make bigger

How did we do this?  Well, it was pretty simple!

Save some of your eggshells that you have used.  When you are getting ready to use your egg, crack the top and let the egg drip out.  I used a spoon to crack the top so I could control what was breaking.  You can remove as much or as little eggshell as you want.   Make sure you clean them out VERY well, especially the membrane (this took time...kind of a pain!).  You don't want mold! 

Next you need to boil up some water.  I used a 1/2 C at a time.  This filled 2 eggs.  When the water is boiling add in anything that dissolves in water.  You can use Epsom Salt, Sea Salt, Sugar, Cream of Tartar, Borax, etc.  Put as much in that will dissolve in water.  Add food coloring.  Then wait. 

Here is a more close up look at our project and what we used:

Sea Salt.  Funny how they are so different from each other even though it was the same batch of water.  I wonder if it had anything to do with they type of egg we used.  The brown is fresh laid from our hens.  The white was store bought egg, so they are much older than fresh laid. 

White Sugar

Sea Salt

Epsom Salt

Epsom Salt 

These were suppose to be Borax but I accidentally poured Epsom Salt in.  {sigh}

I think I am going to let the experiment go another week and see what happens!

We have been doing a lot of Rockhounding lately, so this is tying in perfectly.  We even found some of our own real geodes. 

This was a fun activity for Maggie and I. Her dad even got a curious and would check on the eggs. So this is something the whole family can get involved in! I would love to see pictures of yours if you do an Egg Geode experiment!

Thanks to Roots and Wings Co for the great idea!

down---to---earth: The genuine article

down---to---earth: The genuine article


I know I said I was going to write and share pictures of our Egg Geode experiement, which is turning out really, really cool! But I read this blog post by Rhonda this morning and it really hit home. Thought it was too good to keep to myself!  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Daycation, Part One

We went for a "Daycation" on Saturday.  Maggie loves "daycations" and likes to tell us the difference between a "daycation" and a "vacation".  She gets a kick out of the simplest things!  I will probably be breaking this post up into two because we did a couple of really fun things while we were out.  We drove up to the Mendocino Coast to a town named Fort Bragg.  It's absolutely gorgeous there.  If you have never had the opportunity to see the Mendocino Coast line, you need to.  It's my absolute favorite place to visit.  I love to drive down to the little town of Mendocino and walk through all the neat little stores.  There is a great little shop that has the biggest and best chocolate covered strawberries!  And a really fun toy store that has lots of toys from way back when.  But now I am getting off on a completely different subject, as we didn't do that this weekend!  LOL  We ended up staying in Fort Bragg and going to the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens and then we headed to Glass Beach.  Today's post will be about the Gardens!

The garden is 47 acres of beauty.  As you walk down the trails and pathways you find yourself at the back of the garden right along side the coastline.  There are benches that sit in lush green grass so you can sit and watch the water rise up and crash on the giant rocks in the water.  The Pacific Ocean is breathtaking.  We really couldn't have picked a more beautiful day.  We all dressed warm thinking it was going to be chilly by the water, but everyone took off hats, sweatshirts and enjoyed the warmth the sunshine provided!

This is the season when the Rhododendrons, Camellias, Daffodils, Magnolias, and a few other flowers are in full bloom.  The colors were so deep, bright.  They were truly amazing.  Here is just a small glimpse into what we got to see!

Aren't they beautiful!  And there was so much more, I just didn't know which pictures to share!  LOL

And here are a few of the ocean shots. 

And a couple of random pictures from the garden

We really had a wonderful time.  I can see where you could really spend a couple of hours just combing through all the little trails and pathways.  I have read that there is about 130-150 different species of birds in the gardens as well.

I am looking forward to going back in September when the Dahlia's are in bloom.  They are one of my favorites!

I can't wait to share Glass Beach with you! What a neat beach with a very interesting story!