Aug 8, 2012 | live
I was going through pictures this weekend and realized I never shared a number of funnies from our moving / unpacking / setting up house adventures. And since we still have a garage full of stuff to go through, I have a feeling there’s a whole lot of hilariousness hiding out in boxes waiting to be discovered.
Here’s today’s gem – Kenny set up this box of tee shirts in a box on a side as a makeshift dresser. If this doesn’t say class, I don’t know what does, folks. He positioned it under the window in our bedroom. Just like you’d do with an actual piece of furniture. I think my favorite part about this was watching him kneel down to pick out his tee shirts for work everyday. LOL!!!!!
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Thankfully, that box and the surrounding mess have since gone. I am glad I took some pics. It’s hilarious. And I don’t think anyone would believe that he actually did this if I hadn’t.
Aug 6, 2012 | live
Recently, I have been sad-ish because I miss being home. When I am feeling down, I like to think of things to snap me out of it. Like this: my kids are having a really tremendous experience out here. The childcare program they attend is unreal. I couldn’t imagine anything better, really. (Unless, of course, it was free – haha.) It’s unlike anything we would have been able to expose them to at home, and I am thankful that we’ve been able to give them this experience. Yay! I feel better already just thinking about that.
Recently, they spent a lot of time learning about the Olympics and got to do some fantastic things on campus to get into the spirit of the games.
- Both kids attended the U.S. Olympic Track & Field Hammer Throw trials a few weeks back. They even got to practice throwing. Here’s Grace doin’ her thang (Despite the poor quality, this picture cracks me up every time I look at it.):
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- They both participated in a torch relay where they ran around the lake on campus. Don’t worry. It was a fake torch. But not fake fun – they loved it.
Because Gavin’s an “older” – meaning Pre-K – he got to do a few special activities with all the other Pre-K kids.
- He toured the “Olympic Innovations” display on campus where he got a first-hand look at all the clothes and shoes various athletes would be wearing throughout the games.
- Gavin ran a lap with endurance athlete Jason Lester.
- And, he got to meet the U.S. 2012 Paralympic Rugby team.
Pretty cool, right? I gotta snap out of it!
Aug 5, 2012 | live
So, I broke open the local eggs I told you about in this post.
Check out the yolks.
Left = new local eggs.
Right = not the local eggs.
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I thought this was interesting. I can’t say I noticed any dramatic difference in taste, but visually, the yolks on the left were more appealing. I’ll have to see if anything tastes difference when I do a straight up local scramble.
Aug 4, 2012 | live
Earlier this week, we were treated to a really pretty sunset. We could see it from our backyard through our neighbor’s trees. Nice way to end July!
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Aug 1, 2012 | live
From what I have gathered so far, Portland is big into local food / local ingredients, etc. I like that because, in theory, it should be fresher, and, as an added bonus, it is “greener” since it cuts back on transportation use, etc. That is the best pedestrian explanation my non-causey, non-political self can muster without hitting up Google for serious reading on why local is better. A simple “it’s a good thing” is usually enough to win me over, so we’ll apply that here. Basically, if I can, I am happy to buy local food here in Portland, but I will not be marching for my right to do so. Make sense? Good. Now, right after I finish this blog, I am going to take my stance in the middle of the road on the next topic.
So today… I went a little local – and got some local eggs. I know, sounds kind of ‘no big deal’-ish, right? But they are pretty cool. That’s right pretty cool eggs that I bought at the grocery store. (I know how that sounds.)
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Isn’t that fun?! They are all different colors! And they have a backstory – the hens (guessing they are white and brown – ha!) roam free on a farm up the road, then the farmer(s) just pack ’em up as they collect ’em and you get an egg variety pack. I am sure they all taste the same (and probably taste the same as the eggs I usually buy!), but I have to say, discovering that the eggs were all different hues when I got home was a fun surprise.
(Yes, yes. I know. I need to get out more.) (And, yes, you are right, I am a genius for missing the lovely bit of text touting this fact in the upper left part of the label. Duh!)
I have to say, I hesitated on buying ’em because these eggs were at a price point that if my thrifty, practical, world’s-best-bargain-hunter-of-a-shopper mother found out, I’d probably be disowned. You know what sold me? The little sign on the refrigerator door in front of the eggs that said ‘Our hens are not de-beaked.” Followed by some other language to the tune of we love our hens and want them to live their hen lives as happy hen lives should be lived. What a little nugget of marketing genius to sway someone like me who could probably be vegan if she watched enough animal rights videos on You Tube. De-beaked hens? Ewwwww! and awwwwwwwwwww! How mean. I am sure there are reasons for this practice, but, as you probably guessed – I am not well versed in the issues surrounding animal-based food production. I do, however, like to do a good thing when given options. The de-beaking of hens to lay eggs for my consumption sounded atrocious to me (like I was literally picturing hens with no beaks whatsoever while I was in the store), so I happily re-mortgaged my house to get these local eggs from fully beaked hens that are running around a farm up the street. I’ll take the multi-pack surprise as an added bonus and consider it worth it.
