Living on the Edge

Father's Day Gift Specials

I posted this on the SpokaneMama Blog, but it's a great deal and no matter where you live...you can take advantage of it!

Are you looking for the perfect gift for dad?  The online store: Knives and Multitools.com has put together special gift packages that you can purchase only through the link below...right here on my blog!

Dave, a fellow who works with my husband, owns this website.  It's his second job.  In his first he is out protecting everyone from the interesting characters you see on Cops on Saturday night.  He has put together some fun gift combinations that would be sure to please a variety of dads:

Kits for...the Fishing Dad, the Hands on Dad, the Hunting Dad, the Military Dad, the Law Enforcement Dad, and the Fire Fighter Dad.

Click on this link to find the specials:  Exclusive SpokaneMama Father's Day Deals

All the knives are of the highest quality and Dave added fun accessories to go along with them.  In addition to surprising dad with a cool gift this year, you will be supportinga local business!

Noah, Where's the Ark?

As you may have heard...we have oodles of water right now.  We can't even use the river right now...by county order...because of the water level, water temperature and water speed.  I can't blame them.  If I was a water rescue sheriff deputy I wouldn't want to go in the river to rescue anyone right now either! 

We were hoping to take the boat out this weekend, but that isn't going to happen this weekend.  Not with all the debris being carried by the river.  And especially not after just spending $6,800 to repair our $7,000 boat!

Wolves in North Idaho

This is my favorite picture from the past few weeks.  

The girls and I did a girls day out together this week.  There is this place in North Idaho I've been wanting to take them to for quite some time now.  It's called Wolf People and it's in Cocolalla, Idaho.  The name of the town is fun to say...it kind of rolls off your tongue...

Each day they are open they bring a couple wolves from their wolf refuge.  These are wolves that they use for education.  They will go and visit schools and teach children the truth about wolves...to help educate everyone on what is fact and what is fiction.

It was amazing to see them up close.  They are much larger than I thought they would be.  I guess I thought they were more the size of a coyote.

Q might be the animal whisperer, but CC has a way with dogs.  They love her.  She is our dog girl.  Both wolves licked her hand and greeted her.  (Our dog Buddy is the same way...she is the only one that he will lick/kiss!)

The male wolf loved having his back scratched...they were working on shedding their winter coat big time!  It was just a little unnerving to have your kids scratching a wolf's back.  But like when we were in Alaska and the girls got to feed the reindeer, it was a chance of a lifetime!

Yes, the gate was open!  Nobody got away!

They were a little wary, but pretty easy going....just don't go near their bones!

Wolf People is a pretty important place now that the government delisted the wolves.  Wolves can be hunted now, which is sad.  Their numbers will drop dramatically and all because people fear them or fear what they think they might do.

A Belated Mother's Day

Well, this is the third time that I've started typing this post.  If you are reading this it means that MSN didn't fail and send my typing into far nethers of webdom.  Of course if you aren't reading this you won't know that I am screaming and throwing my laptop across the room in a fit of frustrated web-psychosis.  Actually I wouldn't dare throw my laptop...because it's my friend now.  I'm not sure how I got along without it...mostly because it's off limits for the kids...so I know if something isn't working right...I messed it up!

We celebrated mother's day a week late this year because DD had to work.  The girls planned a special day for me. They whispered about it all week. They were so excited to have a secret that I didn't know.  It's fun that they are old enough now to actually keep a secret.

So Sunday afternoon we headed downtown and ended up at Riverfront Park.  The falls are incredibly high right now with the extreme spring run-off. So a favorite spot right now, for tourists as well as the local population, is the Riverfront Park's Gondolas.  It's normally a great photo opportunity, only made better by the river's high flow.

The gondolas take you down and over the river.

 

It was hot out, but the mist from the falls kept us cool.

It's not an incredibly long trip...but it's fun.  Of course Q was so relaxed throughout the ride.

Yup, that's her grip.  I don't think she let go until it was time to disembark back at the top!

She looks like she's having fun!  She is...as long as you don't make her let go of the railing.

This goose had a nest with a view of the river.  Our gondola went past her and her nest on the cliff.  I bet those babies have a short learning curve for learning to swim and probably for flying too.

This little troll was also there to greet us at the turnaround point  across the river.

Of course the girls knew that second to having a family day, my favorite part of the day would be the chance to take some fun pictures!

Water, Water, Everywhere!

The day of the Jr. Lilac parade, CC and I walked back to the car a different way. We went over the walking bridge that crosses the Spokane River.  The days are warming up and the huge snowpack is melting.  The rivers and creeks are filling and overflowing with water....lots of it.  This is the view from along that bridge:

 

CC kept trying to scare me by getting really close to that gap in the railing that you see just to the right of her.  The little stinker!

It gives the news stations plenty to talk about, that's for sure.  It also keeps our boat off Long Lake right now.  There are some huge logs getting carried over the dams and through the swift spring current.

On top of the snow melt, we had half an inch of rain yesterday.  It just poured throughout the day!  I know that doesn't sound like much if you live along the far north coast of California or the coast of Oregon.  But for Eastern Washington, it's just short of a deluge.  I'm sure someone is organizing the building of an ark!

I have more pictures in my camera from this past weekend when DD and the girls took me downtown for a belated Mother's Day celebration.  I will have to download them soon....

The Spokane River is raging even higher now!  They said it won't peak until this Friday!  And people in Spokane County have been ordered to stay off the Spokane River.  We don't know if that means our part of the river on Long Lake.  Hmmph...that may put a glitch in our plans for Memorial Day.  We have a date with our boat planned!

Jr. Lilac Parade

Our oldest girl, Q, plays the flute in advanced band.  she moans and groans about practicing, but she does it. She even practices songs that she isn't required to practice, sure sign that she really does like playing the flute!  Grumbling is just easier to do sometimes. 

Last weekend was the Jr. Lilac Parade.  At Q's middle school, they have a large marching band, very large when you combine all three grades.  Their band teacher is very motivating.  He obviously loves what he does.  And his enthusiasm has been caught by the students as well.  And from what I hear, if he's given enough oreos and he is in a great mood too! 

There she is.  She is that itty bitty thing at the very end. She got the back spot. As she put it, she was the only one who marched correctly.  She was the lead or something like that because of her spot.  It's some sort of marching term that has left my head for the time being.  No, those aren't all 8th graders around her...she's just short like her mama!

Here's a close-up.  Mama is proud for sure.  Notice the funky black and white effect that I tried to make her stand out in the crowd!!  That was a fun trick. 

One last shot to show you how big their marching band is:

Don't they look good?  See how tiny she is?  Just when I think she is getting tall, I see a picture like this and then I have to remember that her parents are only 5'8" and 5'3"....poor kid.  She doesn't stand a chance! 

Oh, and I almost forgot...THEIR SCHOOL GOT FIRST PLACE IN THEIR MARCHING DIVISION!!!

My Favorite Egg Timer

I like to cook.  Sometimes.  When I do, I love stuff that makes it easy and/or fun.  This is a fun tool that I grew up with. I can remember my dad using this timer to make his soft boiled eggs every weekend.  I hate trying to time boiling eggs.  I always lose track of when I start the timer.  Does it start when the water boils or when I put the eggs in the water on the stove? 

I love my Eggsact Eggtimer.  You just set it in the pan along with the eggs.

Tip for hard boiled eggs:  If you don't like them to crack when they boil...let them warm up to room temperature before you start boiling them.

Anyway, notice how nice and red the egg timer looks.

Now let the water boil baby!

You need not worry about overboiling. Well you probably could if you leave the house and go plant your vegetables in the garden.  But if you hang out in the kitchen, unload the dishwasher, mop the floor, scrub the breakfast pan...and then check on the eggsact eggtimer....

Remember that nice red color?  It is now totally dark.  This means that they are done!  If you want to make them medium or soft, then just boil the eggs until it reaches the marked lines on the egg.  It's so easy!!  So I'd show you the deviled eggs I made...but they didn't last long enough for me to take a picture!! 

One last weekend of soccer

CC had the Wendle tournament last weekend.  It was a tough 3 days of soccer all in a row.  The teams they played were tough.  I'm not sure if they had played any of these teams during the regular season.  Some of the girls on the teams looked a little older than the rest of the team. They may have had a couple ringers in there. (Nobody would have really cheated would they...it was just a kids tournament?)   And my little CC played her heart out, yet they didn't win a single game. 

It did have its benefits though.  We didn't have to spend all of Sunday on the soccer fields!  Little blessings!  Here are some fun shots I took of CC during the weekend.

She loves playing forward, but she is becoming an awesome defender.

Look Ma! No hands!  She also found out that stopping it with your face can hurt quite a bit!

I love this action shot!  CC was defending the goal again!

Wordless Wednesday

Here is a real sign of Spring!

Spring Cleaning

There is nothing as freeing as throwing things away!  Spring cleaning...a true one...is such a release.  We had wrapped up some projects and are preparing to sell our house so it was time to clean things out.  We rented this 6 yard dumpster and started throwing...and throwing...and throwing.

We filled it to the brim!  It's kind of scary how easily it filled up.  It makes me wonder if we had gotten a larger one, would we have filled that one up as easily?  I'd like to think that we aren't quite that bad at collecting stuff.  Though I do have to admit that we had a few boxes of stuff that we never unpacked after our last move!  So how many of you out there have boxes from a move that you never unpacked?  Be honest...there are more of you out there.  It isn't just me!  Is it?