Element - a noun

ELEMENT n. 1. The natural or suitable enviroment for a person or thing.....

Ok, in other words a boxy little car with TONS of room inside and is fun to drive. :) We have been wanting to get a 3rd vehicle that will drive in the snow. Baby and Chuck hate snow driving and slip and slide all over. We looked at the Honda CRV and the Toyota Rav4, but settled on the Element. Travis has liked these boxes, er, cars since he saw them at the Portland Car show when they first came out in 2003. He liked the fact that you can open it up, hose it out and dry it with a towel...no steam cleaning carpets or any junk like that.


So, a little about OUR little box. It's a 2004 Honda Element. It's "Cargo Khaki", which is basically a metallic goldish color. :) It has a little 4 cyl engine, but it actually has some get up and go to it. All 4 seats fold flat to make into a bed. It has a sun/moon roof and we've found out that there are several after-market cool accessories we can get for it....a screen for the moon roof instead of the glass - great for camping - and a tent thing that goes over the back (speaking of camping). Those were a couple of the things we'd actually consider getting later.

The first thing the girls did when we got home (they were at school when we bought it down in Green Bay) was SCREAM! Anisa almost peed her pants. Of course, she HAD to take it out for a drive, so off we all went to the market then to show it off to our friends. It's a nice little addition to our family and we don't have to pick up after it!

Horsing Around

Saturday - 9-23-06 - Anisa entered the 4-H Fall Horse show with Cinnamon the little fluffy (we don't call her fat) pony. They both did really well, considering Anisa hasn't ridden in a LONG time and, well, Cinnamon is a good little show pony, but she had a little extra weight to carry around. :) Anisa entered several classes which were quite large, so she didn't win any ribbons but she had a blast. The day ended with a pretty good downpour. The owner of Cinnamon has another horse that HOPEFULLY Anisa will get to ride one of these days, you know, in our SPARE TIME! :)

At the Races

We went to the Champ Car races on Sun. 9-24-06. Our pal Chris gave us tickets and it was FUN!!!! Travis is a big Formula One racing fan and these were just a taste of what he'll see next year at Indy when we go to see the F-1 races. Katherine Legge, the chick in the pink car, was who we were rooting for. Unfortunately, she crashed right down the track from us. It was SO scary. Something flew off her car right in front of us and then she hit the wall at the curve. We saw the whole thing and the first thing I thought was, "Oh My Gosh! We just saw someone die!". Her car hit with such force that it flew into jillions of pieces. Thank God she walked away with some cuts and bruises. Another cool thing we saw was the back of Paul Newman's head! tee hee He was there with his team. Woo hoo, an exciting day at the track!

Our furry friends

Today is starting to feel like fall. It's supposed to be 52 degrees today. The squirrels are really working to get their stash for the winter. We've been feeding them peanuts. Most of them take the nuts to hide them. We've had a young squirrel (named him Little Dude) who just eats them out by the tree.
This is a picture of Dave. We call him Brave Dave, Daring Dave and David when he's in trouble. :) He'll come and take the peanuts out of your hand. He looks like a tough guy since he has lots of little notches out of his ears, but he's so cute.

I really love it when the squirrels stand up like this...

I know people think squirrels are just rats in fancy clothes, but I think they're cute!

Included in our wildlife are so many birds. The blue jays like the peanuts also. They're so bright blue here. I'll have to post a picture of them later. They don't sit still very long. Usually, they dive down to get the nut and go back in a tree.
Next summer I'm planting a bunny garden, so they'll come into the backyard more. They like our neighbors' yards better since they have yummy flowers and veggies.

Cannon Beach Wallhanging

This is the Cannon Beach wallhanging that I just finished. I like how it turned out. I did more quilting than the pattern told me to and I actually painted little footprints on it. I'm such a rebel! My next project is shelves in Sara's room and in the garage. Then I have to get Sara's comforter cover done. The fabric is just sitting there all ironed and folded nicely waiting to be cut! I need more time!!!! :)

We've been busy

The girls have finished the first week of school and so far they like it. They've even made a friend or two. The picture is of my girls with Emily and Meghan - long story, short ~Travis was stationed with their dad in Portland about 5 years ago, they went to AK, and now they're here. It's nice to have friends already in place when you move! Anisa is in 10th grade and Sara is in 7th grade. Anisa is trying band this semester to see if she likes it. Her poor little flute was just sitting here. She is also taking journalism and will write some for the school newspaper. Sara is taking Home Ec. and will learn to cook and they do some sewing. That will be fun.












These pictures were taken last weekend when we went out to go geocaching http://www.geocaching.com/faq/ ......it's kind of like a treasure hunt, using a GPS unit. You get the coordinates of the "treasure" off the internet, then you go search for the it. Usually they're little boxes full of small trinkets. We like it because we go to places we might not find otherwise. It made us go to a couple of parks we might not have gone to. We were out at Lake Michigan right where the ship canal comes out from Sturgeon Bay.
















These little dolls are inspired from my VERY TALENTED friend The Happy Zombie http://happinesszombie.blogspot.com/ She finds all these darling things to make and do, and I can't help but copy her....I want to be like her! :) They're from a cool blog called Wee Wonderfuls http://weewonderfuls.typepad.com/ Another very talented chick. Anyway, the dolls were very fun to make. I just used her pattern and then made it a little smaller to make my little Tenushi (angel in Japanese). My next project will be my Cannon Beach wallhanging, soon to be posted!

The good, the bad and the fuzzy

Ok, so I go downstairs this morning to "felt" a little knit purse I made as a test to see how it would come out. I happened to look down and see the big puddle under my brand new dryer. I'm thinking that's not a good thing! So, I disconnect the dryer vent, get the dryer onto a cardboard box (thankfully, I have some!) and put fans out to get the puddle dry. I think it'll be fine.
"How did the puddle get there" you ask?.....well, there was a sponge in the big tub sink that clogged the drain while the water softener was draining to the sink. DOH! Note to self: make sure the sponge is NOT left inside the sink at any time. Here's what it looks like now....I can move the dryer back in a couple of hours.

That's the bad.....

THE GOOD...This is the little purse I knit then "felted". It's an easy procedure. You knit your project with wool yarn bigger than you want it. Then you wash it in HOT water and it kind of "melts" together into a fuzzy project. I made some little mistakes, but I know what to do on my next project. The girls are in the process of making little bags now. I'll post those later. This little one is about the size of a cell phone. Not sure if I'll actually use it, but it was fun to do. I have a wallhanging that I need to finish before I try anymore knitting! So many fun crafty things to do, not enough time!!

And now what you've all been waiting for....THE FUZZY!
We went out to Potawatomi State Park. Don't ask how to pronounce it since we haven't figured it out either! Anyway, we were exploring on the beach. It was a chilly evening with a good cool breeze. Anisa said there were some bees sleeping. Yea, ok, whatever Anisa. But, wait! There WERE some bumblebees sitting in a thorny thistle plant sound asleep. These are just a couple of them, but the whole plant was full of little sleeping bees. Ok, I know what you're thinking. Bumble bees...CUTE? Well, see for yourself. I think they're pretty cute, all fuzzy and not bothering anyone. :) That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!