Wallowa Lake Vacation

A few weeks ago we finished our summer off with a family vacation.  This happened to be the first real family vacation we have ever really taken aside from visiting family members.  Of course the kids always think visiting family is a vacation, but this was the first get-away we have taken in about 8 years.

We began planning this vacation around January.  It was difficult deciding where to go but in the end we decided to get away, but not too far, and stay in a vacation home near Joseph, Oregon by Wallowa Lake.  I have firmly decided that the Pacific Northwest is the most beautiful part of the country that I have seen so far.  After we left the high desert and entered Oregon, I knew it was going to be a nice weekend.

We were greeted by some locals.  These deer were so tame (and very scruffy), the kids were able to pet them and we were able to recognize most of the group by the time we left.  They hung around our place the whole four days.  I'm sure the kids will always remember that.

The weather was fantastic.  We were able to leave the smoke that is engulfing most of Idaho and enjoyed clear, cool skies.  We took a tram to the top of a summit and it was very steep.  It was well worth the view that greeted us at the top though.  It was totally breathtaking.  The chipmunks at the top were very tame also.  It was reminiscent of when I was young in California and we would go to the coast and feed the chipmunks and squirrels there. The kids fed them and we took a small walk around to a few lookouts.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was watching these Kokanee salmon spawning in the creek.  The colors were so brilliant and some of them were just huge!

spawning Kokanee

One of the highlights of the trip was the 1-hour horseback ride I took with the kids.  Someday I will get Brent on a horse!  I was worried it would be a very un-exciting ride through the woods.  I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a nice 1,000 ft elevation gain through the forest with some beautiful lookouts of Wallowa Lake.  It was the first time the kids had been on a long horseback ride, but I think they really loved it and it was probably the highlight of their trip.

Taylor, Bridget and Natalie

Cowboy Gavin

The night before we left we were sitting in the cabin when what looked like a large bird flew over our heads. This little guy had probably been hanging out in our cabin all weekend.  It was fun catching him and putting it back outside.

Overall it was a good trip.  We had  a little bit of drama, but the fun outweighed it.   I learned a valuable lesson though.  Never feed your preschooler more than one junk food-filled meal in one day, especially when they are not used to eating that way.  Cleaning up hot dog bits off your other child in the middle of the night is not a lot of fun.

Oh, yeah. I did it. I puked on my brother!

Summers end

It seems like this summer just flew right by.  I suppose having to travel to Tennessee plus having hobbies to keep me busy helped spur it right along.  The garden did 100 times better than I ever imagined it would.  It has totally served every purpose I wanted it to and then some.  My original intent for the garden, was to provide enough green beans to last us all summer and winter in the form of frozen and dilly beans, provide fresh home grown tomatoes, zucchini and squash to eat, and to try to grow a few new things. The amazing thing is that everything I planted, actually produced.  I am pretty proud of myself considering I have never grown anything in my life.

As the summer is winding down, I will be getting back into the groove of things.  I finally made it back to the gym.  I managed to pack on about 8 lbs that I had previously lost since I hadn't seen the gym all summer and only tracked my food sporadically.  It felt really good to get back in to the gym and back to a routine.  Also this coming week, I return to school.. again.  I took last semester off and am back at it with only two classes left.  Unfortunately I cannot take the classes simultaneously so my projected graduation date is Spring of 2013.  I cannot wait to be done with this.

This year all four older kids are in the same school.  I realized after sending them off that first day that this is the first time in about 10 years that I have only had one kid at home.  It is a strange feeling and I can't get over how quiet the house is during the day when they are gone.  That silence disappears quickly though as soon as they walk through the door.

Ever since my mom passed away, I have been trying to reflect on a lot of things.  It's been a difficult few months and some days it is still surreal and I can't believe she is gone.  I honestly think the more time goes by the harder it gets.  I have had plenty of bad dreams and still can visualize her with the panic in her eyes as she was telling me she was not doing ok that day I was there.  It has helped me reflect on my role as a mother and I have been trying to change the way I parent my children.  I appreciate my role more now than ever before, but it also makes that role very hard.  This was definitely an eye opening experience, and I know it will take a while to heal.

We are still budgeting but we changed from Pear Budget, to using Dave Ramsey's budgeting tool and his Total Money Makeover book.  I have had the book for years and tried abiding by it before but quit shortly after starting it.  Today, we don't have much debt and have a pretty decent income.  It allows us to do things we have not been able to do previously, such as go on a family vacation, purchase things for hobbies and fund expenses ahead of time.  However we feel we must stay on a strict budget or else we will find ourselves in the pitfalls of major debt.

I am still working on the rest of my 40/40 list.  I have about 9 more items to add to it before I can publish it.  I never thought it would be so hard to think of things, but I want to make sure the things I list are realistic.  Hopefully I will have lots of new exciting content over the next few months.  I have lots of content ready and pictures archived, I just need the discipline to get them posted.  Thanks to all my readers who have stuck by my side, not deleting me from their blog roll, and checked in from time to time.  I'm glad to know the little following I have is loyal.

Waging the war on aphids

While I was in Tennessee, my husband informed me little green bugs had taken over my garden, specifically the pepper plants. When I came home I found them literally covering the plants. The icky little pests were all over them.

Since I am trying to keep my garden as organic as possible I didn't run for the first bottle of pesticide on my garage shelf.  Instead I went to my local garden store and bought a container of ladybugs.  There wasn't a count on the container, but there were easily several hundreds of ladybugs in that box.  It is a total leap of faith to spend $12 on insects that you are going to release outside into the open not knowing if they will stick around or not.

After we released them on the plants in the evening after I watered per the instructions on the container, the whole family watched them settle down and start feasting on the aphids.  We brought out a magnifying glass and peeked into their microscopic world in amazement.  

The next day many of the lady bugs had stuck around.  All I could do now was sit and wait and see if the aphid population diminished.  On the third day it seemed almost all the ladybugs were gone.  I was a little upset, I thought for sure some would stick around to feast.  Then we noticed these little yellow eggs on the underside of the leaves and I went to check out on the web what it might be.   Sure enough these eggs were ladybug eggs!  

source unknown from the web

After a few days we began to see these strange spiky creatures all over the plants.  I soon learned that they were immature ladybugs and also strictly carnivores.  Hopefully they would do some damage to the pests on my pepper plants.

After about 2 weeks, the amount of aphids were still pretty significant despite seeing several generations of ladybugs born right under our noses.  The peppers were putting off quite a bit of fruit even though the pests were still around.  My next step was to search for a natural insect killer that I could use.  I found this recipe in a forum somewhere and decided to try it.

- 1/3 cup rubbing alcohol

- 1/3 cup of water

- 1/3 cup of ammonia

- 3 drops of dawn dish washing soap

I put this concoction into a bottle and my husband sprayed it on after the sun went down in order not to burn the plants.  I was worried about the ladybugs being harmed but I wouldn't know until I tried it.  Two days after the application of spray, another hatching of ladybugs occurred and I was happy that they weren't depleted.  The next day it was obvious that either the ladybugs or the spray had worked.  The aphids were almost all gone.  

The peppers are really taking off now.  Both plants are covered in peppers and have many flowers.  I have no real way of knowing whether it was the spray or the ladybugs that worked against these nasty aphids, but I do know that next year I won't hesitate in buying the ladybugs again should another infestation occur.  It was a fun learning experience and the ladybugs are a welcome visitor in my garden.  

Garden Progress

Beds 1&2- 5 tomato varieties, zucchini, crookneck squash, cucumbers, green beans, and jalapenos

Beds 3&4- butter crunch lettuce, basil, scallions, carrots, bell peppers, more green beans

Bell Pepper

First ripe sungold cherry tomato

 Beef Steak tomatoes

Green beans

Cucumbers

Aphid infested jalapenos

Basil

Scallions

Buttercrunch lettuce

Aside from the aphid infestation on the peppers and carrots, and a small bout of squash beetles on the zucchini and squash, everything is coming along nicely.

Life, Death and the Pursuit of Happiness

At the end of May, I had no idea that the next month would mark the largest roller coaster of my life.  I received a phone call telling me that my mother was sick.  Tests would be done, and results were being waited on. The next week we found out she had Lung Cancer. I called to talk to her because it had been a couple weeks since we talked.  In fact, I think Mothers Day was the last time I had talked to her.  All the kids wanted to talk to her and they chatted and laughed, each of them told them they loved her.  At the end of the conversation she was winded and had to go put her oxygen on.  This was the last conversation I had with my mom.

A week later, My dad called and let me know she was being taken to the local hospital.  She needed more care than she could get at home.  After a few days at that hospital, it became evident that she was very, very sick.  She was resisting all the doctors in Tullahoma and many other things began spiraling downward.  She was taken by helicopter to a hospital in Nashville and my dad wanted me to come home.  On June 12th, I flew back to Tennessee to be with my dad, sister, and brother as we sat with  my mom at the hospital.

It was so hard to see her all strapped to the bed with tubes and IV's stuck all in her and her being so sedated that she would only rouse every once in a while.  We kept vigil by her side, taking shifts, waiting for more news from the many doctors hoping she would pull through this.  There was one glimmer of hope. On June 13 th, the doctors wanted to attempt to take her off the ventilator to see if she could handle it.  The sedation was cranked down and within minutes, my mom was there.  Only my brother and I were there when they did this, and I am ever so thankful that this day I was there.  She smiled, squeezed my hand, and laughed at a joke my brother and I shared (although she couldn't laugh, her eyes were smiling).  It was truly a gift that I was there for this event.  After 20 minutes, she had a coughing fit and then a panic attack.  I told her she was ok and she shook her head telling me that no, she was not ok.  The sedation was cranked back up and she was gone into that space between awareness and sleep.

The next few days brought nothing but bad news and then, the worst news.  On Friday the doctors revealed that the cancer had spread in her body.  She was too weak for treatment, cancer or other wise.  She was too weak to live off the ventilator.  On Monday, there would be a meeting and decisions would have to be made.  This was the most surreal moment of my life.  I was scheduled to go back to Idaho on Sunday.  I would miss the meeting.  I left the hospital on Saturday knowing it was going to be the last time I saw my mom alive.

I went home on Sunday and spent time with my kids.  Waiting for the call.  The decision was made, it was out of our hands now.  On June 19th, 2012 my mom passed away.  She fought til the end, but it was just too late.  She was just too sick.  Another plane ticket was bought and this time I had to go help plan a funeral.

I have been fighting with so many emotions through all of this.  I have been angry, sad, depressed.  All the normal emotions.  Even today I have a hard time believing that she is really gone.

The funeral was exceptional.  My brother, sister and I really pulled together to plan the best service for her.  She deserved the best.  The amount of people that showed up really symbolized how truly loved she was.

I am happy she is not suffering anymore.  I am happy that she didn't suffer for long.  I wish I could have seen her again the way she was, the way I remember her.  A year ago almost to the day she and my dad had come to Idaho to visit me and my family.  I am glad the kids were able to remember a happy time with them.  They have lots of great memories of the horses and visiting Tennessee and I hope this is they way they remember their gramma.

Now that I am home, and I am trying to regain some normalcy in my life, I have began to appreciate so many things.  I have an awesome family.  We really pulled together.   We shared stories and memories and laughs. I realize how lucky I am to have such a great brother and sister.  My dad is pretty amazing.  I can only imagine how hard it is to lose the person you spent nearly 43 years with.  Since the funeral, we have been keeping in touch a lot via text, and email.  It's something we should have been doing for ages but I am grateful that we are doing it now.

Iv'e begun thinking about my future and my life.  Life is really precious and we have no control over when it will be snatched away from us.  We need to cherish our loved ones, and keep family close.  I have a pretty awesome husband.  He held the fort down here with all 5 kids by himself while I was gone for almost 2 weeks.  It was tough I am sure, but he came out alive.  It was a wonderful sacrifice he made for me so I could be with my mom and family.

My heart is still very heavy, and I really miss my mom.  I used to call and chat with her when she was working just to see what was going on, just to chat.  I don't have that anymore.   I feel life is so unfair, she was far too young and far to wonderful to be taken so soon.  The world lost a great compassionate, caring woman that day.  I have a long road ahead of me and I don't suspect it will ever be easy, but I hope it allows me to appreciate my life a bit more.