Just My Rambling

Is it Tuesday already?? This summer seems to be speeding along. We just got back from an awesome camping trip down by the Oregon coast. Before we left, we were trying to decide whether to cancel the trip because it was forecasted to be storming the whole weekend. In the end, we decided to go anyway with a backup plan of staying at a hotel if it started raining. But once we got there, we were so glad that we went. The beach was gorgeous with all the sand dunes. The weather turned out really great with just sporadic spurts of showers. The kids had a blast hiding among the sand dunes and being chased by the huge waves, with supervision of course. It is amazing how creative two 4-year olds can be when they are among the sand dunes. Their imaginative mind went into full gear with stories about volcanoes, alligators, and even princesses!! Fun! I think this might just end up being a yearly summer spot for us.

The season for berry picking is here. The strawberries are first, followed by cherries, blueberries and blackberries. We’re off to pick strawberries today. Our normal strawberry patch got destroyed by the winter flood this year, so we’ll be checking out new fields to day. Hopefully we’ll get some nice and juicy strawberries.

Lil’ C will be going to Kindergarten in September!! She took the kindie exam last week and passed with flying colors. Normally there is no kindie exam but since Lil’ C will be going in to kindie a year earlier, that’s why she took the exam. I’m just glad that her Sep schooling issue has been settled and now I can start planning other stuff.

I am on my 4th load of laundry today! Love camping but don’t love the aftermath of camping. I can’t believe how much sand we brought back in our luggage!! Ugh! All the clothes smell of smoke too since we spend quite a lot of time around the campfire.

That’s all the randomness today. Off to do more laundry before heading out to the strawberrry fields. Hopefully the weather will be better. It is surprisingly cold for a summer day. Have a great day everyone!!

I have a pretty big extended family especially on my maternal side. Unfortunately we are scattered all over the world. Even with all the advanced technology, it is still hard to keep up with everyone especially with the birth of the younger generations. In an effort to keep our bond, my cousin and I actually made a family tree last month. This family tree currently only spans four generations since those were the only information that we could dig up. Maybe with the help of ancestry dna, we could expand our family tree back to our roots. That would be awesome to be able to do that since I am also quite curious about my roots. I would also love for Lil’ C to learn more about her roots too as she grows older.

These past 2 weeks I have been baking up a storm in the kitchen. It was the end of the preschool year for Lil’ C, so instead of buying something for her teachers, I decided that I was going to make some homemade goodies as a thank you gifts. For some teachers, I made cupcake pops and put them in a little pot and decorated it like a pot of flowers. For another teacher, I made some baked pastries. After all the baking sessions, I remembered why I don’t bake as often anymore. All those food tasting really adds on to the weight. Luckily Lil’ C doesn’t have many teachers, so I didn’t have to bake too much otherwise I might need to consider taking some nuphedra if I have any more baking sessions!

I confess! I am a pack rat!! I started cleaning out my home office yesterday and I am amazed at how much things I found. Besides lots of documents, there were also lots of old electronic gadgets like my old camera and camcorders. Can you believe how bulky those gadgets used to be as compared to the current slim and sleek ones? After digging out everything, I realized that I can pack really well. It’s amazing how much stuff I can squeeze into tight corners. I guess I learned that skill after living in a tight space in the city during my high school years. No wonder during our last move, the movers who were packing our stuff were a little shocked that the packing took a lot more time than they expected! Oh well, back to more treasure digging.

I can’t believe it’s another Random Tuesday Thoughts again! Where did my week go? It has just been a crazy week. I am really looking forward to next week where there’s no school, no activities and absolutely no where to go!!

Lil’ C’s co-op preschool had their end-of-the-year picnic at a lake park on last Thursday. I made cupcake pops for the picnic. The picnic was fun and yet a little sad. Sad because that was the last day that she would be in the same class as some of her friends. There are a few girls who has been in the same preschool with her for the past 2 years. For a 4 1/2 year old, that’s half her life! :) But I guess it is time to move on. It was just a year earlier than expected.

After 2 weekends of camping, we took a break. We’ll have another one in a couple of weeks. Instead we spend the weekend wandering around town looking for fishing holes. DH is crazy over fly-fishing nowadays. He even got Lil’ C a Barbie fishing rod and it’s pink!! Gosh, Barbie and Princess stuff are everywhere, even in the fishing game. Luckily Lil’ C has not discovered the pink tackle box yet or it will be added on the request list soon.

My home office is a total mess, so next week I will be spending my time knee-deep in clutter and hopefully sorting out the mess. Hopefully I will get around to organizing my photos too! Now how do I entertain a 4 year old while I do all that??? 

That’s all the randomness for today. Hop over HERE for more randomness. Have a great week, everyone!!

This is my first attempt at Random Tuesday Thoughts. I’ve been seeing it around the blogs for a while and this seems to be an appropriate time to start since I have lots of random thoughts floating in my head now. Ok, here goes . .

We went camping again last weekend. That’s 2 weekends in a row! I think it’s the long winter hibernation that is causing us to get out of the house as much as possible this summer. While camping, we found that there were clams all over the beach nearby. So we ended up clamming and had some for dinner at the campfire. Yum!

My Firefox is driving me crazy! It keeps freezing up. It’s making it hard for me to drop Entrecards. Sorry to those who have been dropping on my card. Everytime I try to drop, it freezes for 1-2 minutes before starting again. Ugh! Will try to figure out what is going on!!

School’s out and trying to figure out what to do with the little princess. We’ve got a couple of vacation bible school lined up for July but nothing much for June & August. Decided not to sign her up for camp because they are so crazily expensive!! Trying to save some money since we will be sending her to a private school in the fall. I have just gotten hold of the Entertainment Book. There are lots of BOGO coupons in there for museums and activities. Will definitely have to make use of that.

I am really getting addicted to this couponing fun. I’m also starting to learn to ignore the grumpy-face cashiers. The other day I was at the store, bought a couple of things, paid only $2 and got back a $3 Register Reward, the cashier was not very happy and handed the RR to me grudgingly!! I ignored her and happily pocketed my RR. : )

Hey, that was fun! I need to do this random thoughts more often. That’s all for today though.  Have a great day!!

Today’s the official last day of Lil’ C’s preschool. Sigh! This year has gone by so fast. My baby is growing up. This September she might be entering kindergarten. I said might because her kindergarten entrance is still pending right now. It is a little complicated because she will be going to kindergarten a year early. It’s an issue that I have been struggling with lately. Whether I should send Lil’ C to school early or not. What prompted this decision was the fact that even at 4 1/2 years old, Lil’ C is already reading at 2nd grade level, thus the decision to send her early. She will need to undergo some tests next month to decide whether she is ready for kindergarten. If that does not work out, I will probably homeschool her.
Whatever the outcome, this summer we are just going to take it easy and just play. Lots of visits to the parks, zoo, museums, play dates, swimming, camping, fishing and more. Hopefully with all these running around, I won’t need the best diet supplement to keep my weight in check!

Since Lil’ C might be spending more time in school in the fall, I have seriously been considering getting a job or at least a part-time job. I was trained in the technology field but I am not sure if I want to get back into that rat race once again. I am hoping to find a job that is slower-paced and hopefully still allow me to spend time with my girl. With all the insurance dealings I have had lately, maybe I should get a job in the insurance industry like an actuary or underwriter. I might just gain a better understanding of all the insurance out there like health insurance, disability insurance, property insurance and the list goes on. Nah! On second thoughts, I might be more confused than ever!!

Whew, what a weekend! We were out on our first camping trip of the year. The campsite was a huge one and very private. The only problem was that it was a walk-in site which means we had to walk down about 100 feet of steps to get from the car to the campsite. That doesn’t sound very far but when you have to walk up and down at least 50 times trying to unload all the camping stuff from the car, it gets to be a really good workout. The workout has an even better result than appetite suppressant because I was so exhausted after unloading that I even skipped lunch and had a nap instead. Despite this slight inconvenience, we had a great time at camp.

With summer approaching, I have been trying to lose a couple of pounds. Unfortunately even with my best efforts, the pounds would not drop. Then all of a sudden, I lost those extra weight last week. What is my secret? Nope, I didn’t use the best diet pills on the market. It was all thanks to my toothache!! Since I was in pain and couldn’t chew, I had to go on a liquid diet. That’s when I lost a couple of pounds. Since then I have not gain any weight yet. So that‘s good. Hopefully the camping this weekend will not mess it all up again. Somehow DH equates camping with eating feast!!