It's Leigh's birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday! Here's a nice photo my aunt sent me along with a birthday wish. Can you tell which one is Leigh. Somehow I don't think I've changed at all over the years. Just gotten taller!

New show

I'm taking some down time this Sunday afternoon and I have just found the tv show Hoarding on TLC. It makes me want to clean my house! :o) I'm not sure I could watch it on a regular basis but super interesting!

Crafty Waymond

So Waymond's been talking about building a pedal board for all this guitar pedals. After work today he built it and built it so it would fit into a metal case he already owns. He's so crafty!

Empty case & pedal board:















Closed case:















All together:

An opportunity to help

Just wanted to give everyone an opportunity to help. I know that money has been tight for everyone over the last several months, but we could all spare a little. And, every little bit helps. This is part of an email we got from our adoption agency, Adoption Advocates International (AAI) a month ago. As things are taking longer for the adoption process it is putting a strain on the financial side of things for the agency.

"We are sending this special communication to all of our adoptive families and supporters to let you know of a concern that has been impacting us for over a year now. Because of changes in Ethiopian adoption procedures and court requirements in that country, we currently have about 35 children in our care at Layla House who are "caught in the middle". Most have been with us longer than a year because their paperwork is not yet complete. A few already have adoptive families because the paperwork requirements changed after they were referred but most are still waiting to be referred when their files are complete. They have now been in care many more months than "average" and at approximately $150/month per child, it is becoming a significant financial burden for AAI. We remain confident that we will be able to place these children and are committed to caring for them until that happens. Most are babies and very young children that we expect to find families for quickly as soon as the paperwork issues are resolved.

Most of the funding for Layla House comes from the fees that adoptive families pay to complete their adoptions and these "caught in the middle" children are severely straining our budget. We have never been an agency that charges "monthly foster fees" as we think that is unfair as most adoptive families need to make very specific budgetary decisions during their adoptions. We are reaching out to our friends and supporters and asking you to think about making an unrestricted donation to AAI to help us with the extra care that these children are requiring. We are very grateful to many of you who have helped us in the past when issues such as this one have arisen."

There is a link to AAI's blog in our "blogs we visit" section on the right. Please continue check out what they are doing! Waymond is working on a design that will most likely become a poster and may become t-shirts. Our hope it to sell some and the proceeds go to AAI and the kids. Keep an eye out for a post!

On a personal note, our dossier is in Ethiopia and we are awaiting our approval to adopt there. We continue to trust in God's timing!

If you want to give, even a small amount, click on the link "unrestricted donation to AAI" above and it will take you to their secure donation site.

Blueberries

We have a blueberry! I was thinking we wouldn't have a single blueberry since we planted in the spring instead of last fall. But, we are going to have a handful! Here's our first one! I'm so excited about having blueberries!

I think our raspberries will develop next year. No blooms this year, but I'm super hopeful that next year will be plentiful. Of course we have blackberries! They grow wild and like crazy.

Our ice cream maker

Our ice cream maker is so nice to have. We have a Cuisinart Automatic Ice Cream, Frozen Yogurt & Sorbet Maker (picture from the internet somewhere). We got it for Christmas last year as a gift. It's so much easier to make ice cream with this since you do not have to have ice and salt. You just have to freeze the insert, so we've been storing ours in the freezer.

Literally you pour in your ice cream mix into the frozen insert, place the insert on the base, put your blade and top on and turn on the machine. It's super easy and quick.

Movies

We saw Despicable Me yesterday afternoon. Our intention was to save a few bucks and see it in 2D however due to timing we got tickets for the 3D showing. They are doing amazing things with 3D these days. Our friend Molly was recently explaining to us that the movie industry is using 3D to get people back into the theaters. I must say there are many 3D movies coming out soon! This movie was fun to see in 3D, they do several shots just for the kids in the audience. There were several times all the kids in our theater had their hands out trying to touch something. And at the end, during the credits, they do some fun stuff with the 3D. I'm going to need to find a minion! :o)

I will give a word of warning, if you are in the process of adoption, possible tears will be shed before the end of the movie! You've been warned!

The Garden

Our lettuce is doing amazingly well this year. We've had a cooler summer, well up until last week, so the lack of heat has helped our lettuce stay alive. We did radishes for the first time and they have done well. Sadly a caterpillar or a cutworm have eaten all our beets so none this year. I'll have to pick them up at the Farmer's Market.

Ice cream

After church tonight we headed to the grocery store. Waymond was feeling like some ice cream so while dinner was cooking he threw some strawberry ice cream together. Our new ice cream maker is amazing! It is super fast so by the time we finished dinner it was finished.

New favorite - Groupon

Have you tried Groupon.com? You can sign up for the daily deal in your area. If you want to sign up you and click here and I'll get credit upon your first purchase! We have gotten some amazing deals on Museum memberships, cupcakes, frozen yogurt, food. Just thought I'd share!

Saturday

This morning we got up early to head into Seattle with some friends for the Urban Craft Uprising craft show. The first 100 people in got Swag Bags and we were in for that for sure! We purchased some great things; a few pendants, alphabet book, poster for our kids room (not knowing the age of the child you are adopting makes decorating challenging), sweatshirt.




























































We stopped for a little lunch at The Baguette Box in Capital Hill. Super tasty food. I didn't take any pictures of the multiple coffee shops we stopped at during our outing today.

Jam

Both of us got off a bit early yesterday from work so we made jam when we got home. I must say it was a much easier process than the apple butter. That being said, I'm not 100% hopeful that our jam is going to solidify. We had a difficult time getting our "rolling boiled" jam to reach 220 degrees for some reason. Waymond did enjoy some on top of coconut ice cream after the canning was finished. So, we know it's tasty. I guess if it doesn't gel we'll have 12 jars of strawberry ice cream topping! Our next adventure might be blueberry jam.

Our evening

We had a free evening tonight so we walked down to the Farmer's Market, got some cherries & peaches and a new pepper plant. We stopped for some dinner on the way home and then decided to roast some marshmallows in the backyard. It was such a nice evening! Our real first day of warm summer temperatures. I even got to ride my bike to work today - no threat of rain in the forecast at all!!


This was Leigh's marshmallow. I worked to get it brown and super melty. I like them on fire too, but these are just nice!

Garlic

Last week we harvested our garlic that had been growing over the winter. I think it rains too much here for really great garlic, but they turned out ok. They are drying in our garage at the moment. I thought the smell wouldn't be too wonderful in our basement.

We harvested our first head of broccoli this afternoon and steamed it with dinner. We also picked one zucchini! We are well on our way!

Our four tomato plants are growing amazingly well considering our unseasonably cool weather we've been having. However, according to the TV, we will finally have some warm weather this week! We shall see!

July 4th

We watched Tacoma's fireworks from some friend's parents' deck. They had the most amazing view on the waterfront. It was a bit chilly for July. We were all bundled up (even Waymond had two blankets wrapped around him!)

These all all shots from my phone so the quality isn't the best, but you get the point!