I am actually still here. My life didn't freeze even though my blog would look like that was the case. I was looking through the ads in the paper yesterday, and one department store had this shirt that made me laugh: "No one cares about your blog!!!" Ha ha! Ouch!!

Well, what's happening, you say? Our weather cooled down from "I'm meltinggggggg!!!" to "Shut that door, it's cold!" We actually had the heater on this weekend. I have done as little as possible since Friday. I reached some kind of limit with the heat, the errands, the people, the kids' friends, the summer FUN, the go go go, the shopping, the work. I woke up with my back in a lot of pain Friday, and it still isn't 100%. What a drag. What's sad is that yesterday at church, we had a time of hands on healing for those who needed it. But I didn't raise my hand high enough or long enough to get enough people around me lay their hands on me and pray for me. Wretched shyness. But this chap from youth group had his color blindness healed over the weekend at a church youth camp, so that was exciting!

I haven't had such a low key weekend since I don't know when. I didn't go any where, I watched a lot of TV, I didn't tackle anything, I "rested my back" a lot. I have another 2 weeks of vacation starting today. I couldn't even tackle making a camping reservation for this vacation. I'd like to snap out of this funk. Gosh!! Yesterday, Chris and Zach got to go fishing in the Sound with some people at church in their new boat. No fish, but it was fun for them. Oh, I did too tackle something this weekend. Chris brought home a cd/media holder, because we have nothing to hold our stuff. The cds and dvds (bvds, as Chris likes to say) have been piled in leaning towers of Pisa on the stereo, upstairs, by the computer, on the mantle, etc. So now everything is organized and in it's place, where the treadmill was. Now where to put the amazing I'm going to use this to lose weight I really am treadmill? It's standing there, awkwardly, at attention, in a dumb spot. I tried a few days ago to get a different picture for my profile, but I couldn't get the pasting of the photos url line to work. I don't know why. It didn't like the characters or something--too many. Where's the Geek Squad!?!?!

These are pictures from our camping trip to Taidnapam campground. Chris and I jumped from the bridge you see. I had to take my glasses off, so that made it even scarier than it already was. I think my heart is beating faster just writing about it. Pure terror in mid-air, exhilarating after catching my breath!

We had such a great, relaxing time. We went with some good friends and laughed a lot. The weather was perfect, the swimming wonderful, the dog did well. Exhaustion and grumpiness hit me like a ton of bricks when I got home, but I got a lot of sleep, which helped. We actually brought some salmon to cook for the first time. It was yummy, as is everything by a campfire! There was a playground right near the campsite for the kiddies, and a bathroom with shower! YAY! We brought an inflatable raft with oars, and that was fun to row around in. Today--laundry! Dishes! Back to work tonight!! Today, I am another year wiser and younger at heart. Merry birthday to me!

Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle--what a great place!

The dog is a well-behaved female someone left behind on purpose at Chris and Zach's camping trip. We're keeping her, and her name is Windy.

sunflowers, pumpkin, corn, blueberries, beans, tomaters, nasturtiums


Fourth of July!! I took the kiddos to the church block party for about an hour, where there was inflatables to jump on, face painting, snow cones, live music, hot dogs, watermelon eating contest, skits, etc. Then we had some friends over for a barbecue. We ate a lot and ate well--kebobs of pork, pineapple, red onion, red pepper; fresh shrimp soaked in butter then grilled on skewers; deluxe burgers, corn on the cob, salad, ginger snaps, and homemade mango ice cream! Yummy! It was cool in the evening, and we lit off fireworks, as did lots of our neighbors. They were still thoughtlessly lighting them off at 1:00 in the morning, which was very frustrating!!
Last night, since I'm on vacation, I got to take the kids to their Wednesday night activities at church. They will take August off and then start in fall again. The girls played kickball among other things. They haven't been taking part, but I was able to encourage them to get in there and play, after showing them how it was done. It was really cute seeing all these little girls play for the first time. Often, they'd kick it and have to be told to run. But it's a good environment to be learning this kind of thing for the first time, unlike the more unkindly school environment.
Zach and Chris will be doing a Royal Rangers church campout tomorrow night on Fort Lewis, of all things.