Spontaneous

The Man and I have a "spontaneous" side.  We often will come up with something, talk about it and then do it.  Our  marriage is kinda on example.  We did wait a year to get married but only because there was a deployment in there.  If there hadn't been a deployment we would have been married MUCH sooner.  Buying a house was similar...we talked about it, looked around at some houses and then did it. We might talk about it for a bit but when we decide to do it, we don't waste any time.

 A real life recent example that takes the cake:

We were talking about finding a beater truck.  We really need one for projects and such around the house.  I didn't want another car payment so we were going to try to find a cheap one.

One Sunday afternoon at 1:30 we headed out to check out some local parks in his car.  The Man got the idea that we could trade in his car for a truck.  We don't NEED two cars.  We talked it over and The Man called the bank to answer some questions.  He also surfed the web to see what he could find.

The next day we decided on a whim to stop by a dealership just to see what they had.  In less than 24 hours we had come up with a list of things we wanted:

Used

Less than 10 years old

Automatic

Extended Cab (for the dog and future kids)

Power Everything

Lowish mileage

Under 10K

Decent gas mileage for a truck

We thought that we should be able to find something within those parameters.  We also weren't in a rush to buy...we had the luxury of time on our side.  We could wait until we found THE ONE.

The Man was a little hesitant about going to a dealer....he didn't want to have to deal with the salesmen.  Thankfully we got a newbie who wasn't pushy and tried his best to find what we wanted.  He did show us a truck that was out of our price range and when we said no cause it wasn't a extended cab so he showed us something else.   

Then we got to it.  A red, automatic truck with power everything with low mileage under 10K.  We took it for a test drive and we really liked it.  The only issue...it's a '99.  Yeah.  We didn't love that but we talked and The Man test drove something else.  After that we went to check out what the other dealerships had to offer.  Which was nothing. We still really liked that truck...

So we headed home.  While we were there we check checked the value online and did some talking. 

So The Man returned to the dealership about 3 hours later.  He was there about 2 hours and returned home the proud owner of a new truck! 

The Man and his truck

It took us about 31 hours from talking about getting a truck to owning a truck.  I'm still in shock that we did it.  The best part?  It's going to save us money on car payments.  The Man is so happy to have a truck again!

What have you been spontaneous about?

Slow Dancing

I didn't know what song I wanted to share with you today, so I decided to share the song that was playing on Pandora when I started writing this post.  I was listening to my Dave Matthews Band Station and this is what was playing:

Do you have any music playing right now?

What song are you listening too?


Don't forget to go link up with Goodnight Moon! 

Kisses

While we were at California Adventure in California I was able to cross off another item on my 101 in 1001 list!  I'm very happy to cross off #37. Kiss at the top of a Ferris wheel. 

Poe, The Man and the Wheel

It's not exactly a Ferris Wheel....but it's close enough.  I figured that since I wrote the list I can decide what qualifies!  The wheel is pretty cool.  There are swinging and non-swinging gondolas.  We rode it twice and both times we rode in the swinging gondola.  You don't go as high as the non swinging but it's more fun to swing!

The kiss

  Of course I had to take pictures from the top:

Matterhorn & Space Mountain in the distance

Tower of Terror

I really liked the wheel!  Here's what it looks like at night:

Abundance

Our garden is doing better than either of us expected.  We're getting some great summer squash and zucchini.  Now, The Man doesn't enjoy summer squash or zucchini and let me plant them cause he loves me and know that I enjoy these veggies.  I'm on a mission to get The Man to eat these veggies.  Thankfully he's kinda on board.  He wants to eat the ones we grown but he doesn't like the taste.  I have to be creative and hide them in food.  I made a stir-fry and chopped the zucchini and summer squash up very fine and mixed it in with the rice...the man got a few tastes of it but he ate it.  SCORE!  Another way I'm trying to hide it is in our dessert. Yes, you read that write.  I'm trying to use the zucchini in dessert...brownies to be exact.

I saw that a friend from college was making zucchini brownies so I requested the recipe.  Jill sent the the recipe and I was super excited to try it.

 Here's what you need:

1 cup melted butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 bag chocolate chips
Chopped walnuts and/or raisins are optional

If you read through it carefully, you'll see that there is no cocoa in this recipe.  I didn't realize that until I was in the middle of making them.  So I sent Jill a message asking if there should be cocoa and made the executive decision to add 1/3 cup of cocoa.

The recipe is pretty easy:

Mix melted butter and brown sugar together. 

Add eggs and beat well.

 Add water, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla, flour and cocoa (if you're using it).

Mix well. Stir in zucchini.

Grease & flour 9x13 pan. Pour batter into pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

 

I forgot to put the chocolate chips one so I added them about 5 minutes after I put it in the oven.

Sorry it's blurry.  I used chocolate peanut butter chips.

Bake at 350 for 35 -40 minutes. Great served with vanilla ice cream.  

 

You don't get a photo of the finished product cause we ate them before I remembered to take one.  Not the whole thing but a good portion was missing and it would have made a bad picture.  Just trust me when I say they are DELICIOUS!

The Recipe:
1 cup melted butter
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 Tbsp water
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchini
1 bag chocolate chips
Chopped walnuts and/or raisins are optional

Mix melted butter and brown sugar together. Add eggs and beat well. Add water, baking powder, baking soda, vanilla and flour. Mix well. Stir in zucchini.

Grease & flour 9x13 pan. Pour batter into pan and sprinkle with chocolate chips.

Bake at 350 for 35 -40 minutes. Great served with vanilla ice cream.

What's A Girl To Do?

When The Man has duty he has to be on the boat for 24 hours.  He has duty pretty frequently and I often try to have leftovers.  I don't like cooking for just me.  On a recent duty day I had had some leftover Buffalo Chicken Wing Soup.  It made for a very tasty lunch but I didn't want to have it again for dinner.  It was a wonderfully warm day in the PNW and I decided that a hamburger sounded good.  I could grill it and it's not hard to just make one.  There was just one small problem...we didn't have any hamburger buns.  I was laczy and didn't want to run to the store to get some.  As I pondered what to do I started thinking about the cross country drive Megan & I made last year.  I remembered that when we ate at In-N-Out she ordered her hamburger protein style cause she can't have gluten.  I knew her for a year before I lived with her for a year and I NEVER saw her eat any kind of meat so fast.  She inhaled that burger.  I was only halfway done with mine when she went and ordered another one.  She seriously considered ordering a third.  While I was remembering Megan's enjoyment of her burgers, I remembered how she ate it...the patty sandwiched between two lettuce leaves.  We have lettuce in our garden that we haven't been eating.  What a great use for it!

Since I picked a whole head of lettuce, I didn't want it to go to waste.  I decided to have a salad with my burger.  I added some julienne carrots, diced summer squash and canned tomatoes.  I didn't have any fresh but really wanted tomatoes on the salad.  I also added a little Parmesan cheese, balsamic vinegar and olive oil. It was delish!

Would have eaten your burger without a bun, with lettuce or gone to the store to by buns?

Welcome!

This is my first time participating in IComLeavWe so I thought I'd tell you a little bit about myself:

I'm Poekitten.  It's nice to meet you!
That guy with me is The Man aka my husband.  

You'll see more of him if you stick around.

I married my sailor husband in August of 2009.  The Navy is his mistress.
She can be demanding but we make it work and roll with her indecisiveness.

I started blogging a little over a year ago to stay in touch with family & friends.  The blog is about our life...what we're cooking, making, changing on our house, and where we're exploring as we put down roots here.  There are times I share about what I'm learning about life and my faith.  Our furbabies also make frequent appearances because they are just too cute.  I might be biased though...

Aren't they adorable?

I've noticed that most of the blogs participating have to do with infertility.  Well, after a year of not preventing and another year of actually trying, The Man and I are embarking on our quest to find out why we're not pregnant yet.  We have our first appointment tomorrow and I have to admit that there's a little fear there.  While I've been doing a little reading and quietly reading a few infertility blogs, there's still a lot I don't know. The unknown is always a little scary and I'm thankful that I'm not going to be alone through this!  

Please let me know you stopped by! 

Thanks for visiting and I hope to see you again soon.
 

Friday

It's Friday again!  Make sure you head over to Wife of a Sailor to link up!

1. My spouse and I rarely agree on  letting the cats outside (I say no, he says yes), but always agree on just about everything else. It's scary sometimes.
2. If I could use one word to sum up the way I feel right now, it would be tired.
3. One of the things my spouse does that grosses me out is when he throws his dirty socks on the clean clothes.
4. My readers may think I'm crazy for doing this, but I really love to  eat nutella and peanut butter on graham crackers.
5. Frankly, my dear, I don't want to hear about breastfeeding on Twitter anymore!  Yes I know it's important but there are other things to talk about.

Hi

So...how are y'all doing? (Did I spell that right? I'm not from the south!)  Well I hope.  I don't have much for you today.  I have several blog posts in the works but I haven't finished them yet.  I'm in a funk and am not really in a writing mood.  This week is a little busier than I thought it would be and mentally I'm thinking about other things and the blog has gotten pushed to the side.  Just for now, not forever.  At some point I'll get back into the writing groove. 

If you're afraid you're going to miss me too much, you can always find me on Twitter.  I'll be checking in over there and chiming in when I have a chance.

Blog posts are better with pictures so I'm going to leave you with this adorable picture of Iggy...

He's just too cute!

YUM!

Source

WARNING: This post contains many photos of food. DO NOT read if you are hungry or haven't eaten yet today!

No vacation is complete without yummy food.  Disney is no different.  The Man and I are happy eating two meals a day with a snack or two along the way.  We're big fans of brunch and "linner."  We went to Disney to celebrate our anniversary.  We didn't make it to the park for our actual anniversary so we celebrated the next day. I had made reservations for us at Blue Bayou.  The Man really wanted to eat here and it sounded good to me!  The restaurant is inside the beginning of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride.  It's always night inside and you can see shooting stars and lightening bugs.  The food is delicious!  I had top sirloin and The Man and filet mignon...so good.  Since it was our anniversary we also received a complimentary chocolate mousse.  It wasn't huge but was the perfect amount.  I should also mention that my husband doesn't eat green beans and yet he cleaned his plate.  There was nothing left by the time he was done....even the green beans had disappeared!

Poe's meal

The Man's meal

Inside the restaurant

The Blue Bayou is now a favorite...we will be eating there whenever we go to Disneyland!  For lunch the next day we decided to do a picnic.  I had pre purchased picnic lunches for us before we got there.  Along with the picnic lunch you got a ticket for a reserved viewing area for the show that night.  There are several choices; we both got the fried chicken.  It was super yummy and perfect for a warm day!

 The viewing for the show was standing only but we were able to sit on the ground for a bit before it started.  We were in the back because we wanted to be able to make a quick get away.

Waiting for the show to start

Are you guys hungry yet?  I'm almost done....if you go to Disney, you MUST get a corn dog from the little cart on the right hand side of Main Street.  It's EPIC (as my friend told me!)  They are hand dipped and are so good.

Epic corn dog

The corn dog stand

And last but not least...we ate at Cafe Orleans.  We thought it was counter service but it wasn't!  We only had to wait about 15 minutes and it was well worth the wait.  We had a great shaded table, a light breeze and some live Jazz music in the background.  We didn't have to wait long for our food either; The pommes  frites were AMAZING and we ate every last one.  My ragout and his chicken crepe were also delicious. 

So good!

Are you hungry yet?  As you can see, we didn't starve while we were away!

Do you have a favorite restaurant/food to eat while at Disney/on vacation?

Wait!  I have one more:

 Funnel cake with strawberries and whipped cream. SO GOOD!
 

Such A Character!

One of the things I love about going to a Disney Park is being able to see the characters. I know that The Man & I are in our early 30's and have no kids but we still enjoyed getting our pictures taken with the characters as we saw them:

Sorry it's blurry but it was just a quickie photo on our way to the train.  There was almost no wait to see Goofy cause he was bask in a corner and most people didn't know he was there!

We waited about 5 minutes to see the mouse.  You HAVE to have a Mickey picture taken when you're there.  It's a rule!  Go ahead, check the rule book!

Poe with 2 sailors

We actually waited in line to see Pooh.  Eeyore was supposed to join him but he lost his tail and Tigger was helping him find it.  We were already through the line by the time Eeyore came out and I wasn't waiting in line again! 

I did at least get a photo of Eeyore.  I snapped it while we were in line for Splash Mountain.  Eeyore's been my favorite since I was little.  I loved him before he was popular.  I remember how hard it used to be to find stuff with him on it!

 We also didn't have to wait long to see Donald.  He's a favorite cause he's an Oregon Ducks fan!

We didn't have to wait to see Chip & Dale either.  However we didn't get a picture taken with them on our camera, just on the photo pass by the professional photographer because we were in a hurry to get a fastpass for Soarin.  The picture turned out bad and they want $14.95 for it.  Nope, not going to happen.  So instead you get to see them in a photo that The Man took while on the double decker bus:

The Man wanted a picture with some of the princesses but they weren't ever around.  I used the handy dandy free Disney Parks app to try and find out where and when they'd be out and they never were.  I guess we'll have to go to Disney World for those pictures!

Who is your favorite Disney character?

Happiest Place on Earth

The Man and I were originally going to go camping for our anniversary.  Kinda last minute we decided that we wanted to go to Disneyland instead.  We've been wanting to go before we have kids (since that hasn't happened yet.)

We decided to get the 3 day Salute pass that Disneyland is offering Active Duty & Retired military.  It was a perfect amount of time to enjoy Disneyland and California Adventure.  I had never been to Disneyland but The Man had been there a few times before.  It had been about 13 years since he had been there so there was still new stuff for us to explore together.

We had a great time! I love Disney.  I love the magic and how much attention is paid to even the littlest detail.  I've wanted to visit Disneyland for a long time.  I've been to Disney World several times and love it, how could I not love Disneyland too?

 I will admit that I was a little disappointed with the castle at first! I'm used to Cinderella's castle dominating the skyline as you walk up Main Street.  I actually had to look for the castle.  As my husband reminded me, this is the original and it's smaller.  Smaller doesn't mean that it's bad.  It meant that there was less walking involved, which made my feet happy!  The lands are smaller and closer together and made it easier to ride hop.  I also enjoyed the fact that it felt like there were less shops in each land and the shops that were there were small.  I felt like I was able to focus more on the rides and entertainment because I wasn't being distracted by wanting to check out another shop. 

We really enjoyed California adventure too!  Tower of Terror and the California Screamin' roller coasters were our favorite part.  I think we rode each 3-4 times.  We spent the entire day there without a break. I was cranky for a good part of the afternoon but we still managed to enjoy the 3D Muppets and the live Aladdin show.  We learned a great lesson: a mid day break is essential to have a happy Poe!

What's your favorite thing about Disney?

Don't worry...there are more vacation posts to come.  I haven't even covered rides, character pictures and food yet!

It's My Life

I love me some Bon Jovi!  The songs are so singable and they get stuck in my head.  They're great for highway driving with the windows down and the volume all the way up.  Seriously, who doesn't love to sing Livin' on a Prayer?  It's classic!

One of my favorite Bon Jovi songs reminds me of one of my classes in China.  It's my favorite because of them.  They used to blare this song during break and you could hear it in every classroom in that hallway.  The Chinese teacher, Sean, who taught them English has excellent English and taught them tons of idioms.  He also shared his love of rock music.  So this song is for Class 1, where ever they all are.

It's My Life by Bon Jovi

A funny story about Sean:  He used to get Time magazine from the school library.  He liked to ask us questions about words he didn't know.  We didn't mind answering and it gave us a change to explain American culture to him and any other teachers that were around when he asked.  We shared an office with 6 Chinese teachers (there were 3 of us) and they questions often caused great conversations.  The most memorable question?  A fellow American teacher, Kaylene & I were working at our desks when he comes over and says to us "Can you tell me the difference between soft porn and hard porn?"  We were like "WHAT?!?!" and just looked at each other!  He was reading an article of the affects of pornography and didn't understand the difference between the two.  Needless to say we had an interesting conversation with him!

Because it's classic, I'm adding Livin' On A Prayer.  Gotta love the hair and the fringe! Oh, 80's we miss you!



And because you can't have too much Bon Jovi, here's one more:



I'm on a Bon Jovi kick. Just one more and then I'll promise I'll stop!



I could keep going.  There are so many more great Bon Jovi songs!  Did I miss any of your favorites?

Teaser

I'm being a bad blogger and am finding it hard to jump back into blogging.  I was only gone for a few days but getting back into a writing schedule hasn't been working.  Part of it is due to the fact that I still have to go through the pictures.  I'm going to leave you with another teaser photo for you to enjoy!

How do you overcome writer's block?

How do you make time to blog?

Home Sweet Home

A preview of vacation

The Man & I are home from our short vacation.  We were sad to leave but happy to get home!  It's always nice to return home to your house, your bed and the furbabies.  Molly, Ig & Al are very happy we're home and I've had one near me ever since we walked in the door.

I kinda have a full day, so I'm going to work on getting a real blog post together for you guys tomorrow.  For today I just wanted to pop in and say hi.  So, HI!

I'll be back on Twitter and catching up on blogs as well today.  I haven't been commenting as much since I've started 1). reading blogs in Google reader and 2). reading blog posts on my phone.  I'll try to be a better commenter!  If you want to find me on Twitter, I'm @Poekitten.  You can also find me by hitting the Twitter button on the top left.

I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday!

Fore-Shaping

I'm excited to share this guest post with you today!  I consider Sierra a great bloggy friend and I'm so excited that she agreed to write a guest post for me!  If you've never visited her blog, you should.  Do that right after you read her post, kay?  Thanks!
I’m very excited that Poe opened up her blog for guest bloggers. I’ve never been one before and thought it would be a fun opportunity. When I finally get around for guest bloggers she will probably be the first person I ask. Just sayin’.

So I’m Sierra and I blog over at The Tervo Times. My life isn’t that crazy, but sometimes it  can be a little intimidating when you’re going to face something new. I’ve done “new” before;  college, marriage, kids, special needs, different city, different state, different country – but there’s the chance we’ll be facing something TOTALLY new soon.

Have you heard about fore-shaping?

Apparently the military is still overmanned even though we’re fighting two wars overseas and  involved in a military conflict. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense to me either. Hubby’s job is one that  they are cutting out people and to be honest, other than what he’s doing now (SOS, Master’s classes, applying to AFIT) there’s not a whole lot for us to do to keep/lose his job. It’s really not up to us and completely out of our hands.
Military doesn’t have job security?!?! That’s news to most people.  We should know in September if he gets to stay in the service or not. And if not, he’ll be out of a job around April.  Sucks.

There are a lot of implications that brings up, but what has been forefront in my mind other than  him finding another job so we can have benefits, finding a place to live, etc… is ‘who will I be  without the military?’

Some of you know, most of you don’t, that I was born and raised a Navy brat. I’ve had the  military around my whole life. In fact, when I was getting ready to apply to colleges I had to ask my mom where I could go grocery shopping since there was no commissary or base near my  place of study. Dense, I know.

Without that tan ID card that says “spouse” I cannot get on the base, I won’t attend my PWOC  Bible Study anymore, no more TriCare, no more spouse’s club (not like I ever joined, but I might  have!), no more  commissary, bye-bye safe base housing, and farewell to that security I’ve had  with the military owning me.
There’s also that whole camaraderie spouses have with being a fellow wife of a military man.  There’s a sisterhood and understanding. It is a status. In some ways it can partly define who we  are.

Finding life outside the service will be quite an adventure. This was not in our plans at all, in  fact, for most of hubby and I’s relationship we said he’d be career military. We’re hoping we  don’t have to leave the military, but are trying to prepare and accept what happens if we do. I’ve been telling God what I think should happen and I know he’s just smirking and shaking his head because he is truly in control of it. Yes, I know that in my head but sometimes it can be  very hard to accept! I’m a planner… I like to know what’s going to happen!
I found this scripture and it really hit home for me. It’s my reminder that I cannot control or plan out everything ‘cause it’s not up to me.

“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.” Proverbs 19:21

So, whatever happens, I may or may not like the outcome but I’m gonna try my darndest to  accept it and find the best in the situation! And I can kinda hope that hubby gets to stay in the service and is accepted into AFIT and we’re sent to Monterey, California for a couple years. Going overseas again wouldn’t be too bad
either…

730 Days

730 days ago, I stood before my beloved.  I held his hand, looked into his eyes and said


I, Poe , take you, The Man , to be my lawfully wedded husband, my constant friend, my faithful partner and my love from this day forward. In the presence of God, our family and friends, I offer you my solemn vow to be your faithful partner in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad, and in joy as well as in sorrow. I promise to love you unconditionally, to support you in your goals, to honor and respect you, to laugh with you and cry with you, and to cherish you for as long as we both shall live.

He promised me the same.  We went from two individuals to one flesh.  There, with family and friends as our witnesses, we began our family.

After two years of marriage, I have a better idea of exactly what I promised on that sunny evening so many days ago.  We have laughed and cried, had joy and sorrow and have supported each other.  I am so blessed by my husband and I'm thankful that he's the one God created for me.  Life has been sweeter with The Man by my side.  There's so much I could say, and say it I will.  The Man will be hearing it tonight while we talk and cuddle.

I love you babe. 

Two years down, eternity to go!

Since it's Thursday and it's link up day with Amber at Goodnight Moon, I'm going to share with you the song we used for our first dance and the father/daughter & mother/son dance.  The Man & I danced together for the first stanza.  At the beginning of the second stanza we had my dad and his mom come dance with us. Then we had everyone else come out and dance while we danced with each other again. It worked perfectly for  us!

18th Floor Balcony by Blue October

I close my eyes and I smile
Knowing that everything is alright
To the core
So close that door
Is this happening?
My breath is on your hair
I'm unaware
That you opened the blinds and let the city in
God, you held my hand
And we stand
Just taking in everything.

And I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
And we're, we're trying so hard not to fall asleep

But here we are
On this 18th floor balcony...
we're both flying away.

(beginning of Father/Daughter & Mother/Son dance)

So we talked about mom's and dad's
About family pasts
Just getting to know where we came from
Our hearts were on display
For all to see
I can't believe this is happening to me and,
I raised my hand as if to show you that I was yours
That I was so yours for the taking
I'm so yours for the taking and
That's when I felt the wind pick up
I grabbed the rail while choking up
These words to say and then you kissed me... (yeah)
I knew from the start
My arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
And we're, we're trying so hard not to fall asleep

But here we are
On this 18th floor balcony...
We're both flying away

(cue everyone dancing)

And I'll try to sleep
to keep you in my dreams
'Till I can bring you home with me
I'll try to sleep
and when i do I'll keep you in my...dreams

I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
And your head is on my stomach
And we're, we're trying so hard not to fall asleep
So here we are
On this 18th floor balcony...

Yeah
I knew it from the start
So my arms are open wide
Your head is on my stomach
No...We're not going to sleep
Here we are
On this 18th floor baclony...
We're both flying away.

Since it's our anniversary I'm going to take a break from the blog while we celebrate and just enjoy each other. I have a couple of guest posts lined up.  I hope you enjoy them!

Flashback: One year ago today

Whales in Space

Every year in a near-by town there's a festival called Whaling Days.  It's to celebrate the town's past history and helps raise money for different things in the area.  There's a fair thingie with rides and booths and I'm not totally sure what else, since I've never been!  Then why am I writing about it you ask?  There's also a parade and for the past two years I've been in charge of the float.  The only reason I said yes last year was because I have a secret weapon.

In his past life, The Man used to build sets.  How much different is a float from a set?  Well one moves and the other stays put!  There are many more differences I know but I figured it was close enough.  My husband loves me enough that he went along with it.  We (he) did such a great job last year that they asked me (us) to be in charge of it again.  Sure, we said.  It would be no problem.  We didn't think to ask what the theme was this year.  Every year they do the float theme based on VBS (Vacation Bible School).  This year's theme has to with space.  This year they thought it would be great if we could win a prize so do that there needed to be whales in it somehow.  So we needed to put whales in space.

I asked my Twitter friends for ideas and the 4th Star Trek movie came up.  We seriously considered recreating that when I said no.  One, it's not in space and two, I didn't want to have to build the Golden gate Bridge.  I wanted something easier.  After some discussion, we decided to have whales jumping out of the ocean going into space and then going back in the ocean.  Easy, right?

Part of the earth

The Man working on getting the whales to fly

The flying mechanism and the starry fabir

Mounting the sun

The awesome paint job...there are some talented people in the congregation!

Parade ready!

If you'd like to see the whales in action, there's an 8 second video on my Facebook page.

The float was a huge hit!  The congregation loved it.  I think we'll be doing the float next year too...We're hoping we get to pick the theme next year.

I also need to say a huge THANK YOU to my amazing husband for being the driving force behind this.  It wouldn't have been completed without him.  I also need to thank the two amazing painter and the great family that let us take over their garage so we could finish putting it together.  The family also helped us out and we were finished by 9pm the night before.  I love seeing what teamwork can accomplish!

Garden Update....It's GROWING!

I'm amazed that our garden is actually growing!  We're so excited.  I've been snacking on the sugar snap peas for awhile now but we've also gotten about 5 strawberries.  Let me tell you that they are so good.  They taste so much better than the ones you can buy.  You don't have to take my word on it...here are some photos of the growth:

Two of many, many summer squash

There's a tiny jalapeno on the tiny pepper plant!

We're amazed that the carrots are actually growing!

Yum, fresh strawberries!

Sugar snap peas are a perfect snack!

I thought I took a picture of the massive zucchini that's growing but I must not have.  I'm going to pick it and make it into zucchini bread before we leave...anyone have a good recipe?

WAIT!  I found it...the picture of the massive zucchini!

A HUGE zucchini!

*I didn't take the time to put a watermark on these.  Please don't steal them!