Etta Girl

And since I KNOW that most people don't visit this blog for deep philosophical writing or pictures of a washed out road...

Etta on the return trip. We are just hoping and praying that she does as well on a plane as she does in the car!

Nature

Got a call from our airline last night. Our flight out of Spokane tomorrow morning was canceled due to "weather" in Denver. Yikes! Thankfully my totally AWESOME sister-in-law Molly was able to call today and get us on a flight Sunday morning. (I had tried last night and the best I could do was Tuesday. Shows how awesome I am...) God's plan is God's plan and I am so thankful that we still get to go (at all!) and spend most of the week.

But this is what else Mother Nature can dish out...a washed out (man-made fill-in) road.

View from close to the bottom.



Erik surveying the scene.



Looking across the road.



Another view.



Looking down. It was hard to get good size perspective because we didn't really want to go crawling around the washout. But the "pebbles" at the bottom were actually pretty large rocks.

Baba & driving

While I unfortunately don't have any pics of the actual driving (most of it was done while I was starting to get the flu) it was one of the high lights of the trip to Montana. As a matter of fact, when Christine asked Etta what she did while in Montana Etta replied "dwiving!" Nice. And when we stopped at Shopko in Coeur d'Alene on our way home we were going back to the car and Etta said, "Etta dwive". Not yet girlie!

But here are some other Baba Eddie pics.

Takin' a stroll with Baba.



Post-bath snuggles



Chillin' with the drums.



[Sorry to say NO pics with Grandma Cindy. Not even any in her nightgown with bed head. Bummer dude. Next time we will get some crazy shots!]

Uncle Eek-Eek

'Tana. Ni-Night. Tattoo.

This is how Etta refers to her Uncle Erik. Usually all of that together. Kind of like a sentence - only not quite. (Can you tell that he sleeps a lot? She's not even two and has figured that one out!)

[We took a quick trip to Montana - well about a week and a half ago now. To be fair I had the flu for the bulk of last week. Did not do much except NOT eat, sleep and try not to throw up. Just after getting done with morning sickness. What are the chances. But now I feel GREAT! Thank you very much.]

When we were there it was Erik's first weekend of his spring break. What a fun trip. They bonded as I always hoped they would.

Playing the xylophone while Uncle Eek-Eek...naps...



Hello? What are you doing? I know that she's taking a picture but I'm trying to practice here buddy.



Checking out the horses.



Do you like my hat? I pretty much refused to take it off all weekend. Grandma Cindy is SO nice!



Snuggles. She cozied in all by herself that day.

Spring Weather

The last few weeks in Lewiston have been incredibly nice.

Even the animals wanted to get outside to play.





And Etta is ready for outside play. She can *almost* climb up the ladder herself to go down the slide. This summer is going to be so. much. fun!

Boys! Bikes!

Is the regular chorus I hear well, pretty much everyday. Going over to see her boys and ride their bikes is Etta's very favorite thing to do these days. And to see "'Steen" (Christine) and maybe "Matt - home? work?" When I was uploading pics last night I was pleased to see that Christine had gotten a couple on the bike. Thanks Christine!!

Ready to ride!



Eye protection is very important.



Cheese!

I Wanna Be Like You - oo - oo

Walk like you, talk like you, yeah, you - oo - oo.

Along with wearing daddy's winter gear Etta also likes to wear his "lounge" around clothes. She was very adamant about wearing the sweat shirt even though it was huge.

And the slippers? Well, she wanted them on but they didn't last quite as long.

Look, I'm daddy!!



(Cheesy, I know. I wanted her to show what sweatshirt it was. Nice face to go along with it!)




And the best for last. Doesn't she look like a gnome or something?

Sibling Rivalry

Already? Seriously?

When Etta was born we received a couple of different "lovies". (A very soft, small blanket with the body of the animal coming up through the middle. Okay, my description makes them sound scary - really, they're not.) One was a purple kitty (it is one of these pics) and one was a green and yellow ducky.

She was never interested in the duck.

Until a couple of weeks ago.

Now she wants it with her all the same times that she has kitty with her. Mostly in the crib.

When she first showed an interest I said, "But when the new baby comes you will let them have it, right?" Oh yes, she "said" that would be fine.

Until last night.

After ducky and kitty visited the "beauty shop" (the washing machine).

Etta: Ducky! Ducky! Ducky!

Me: But Etta, when the new baby comes you are going to share, right?

Etta: No! No baby ducky!! Baby go ni' night! No ducky!

Me: Super...

More VV!

Etta watching "VV" (TV) on the computer. We usually watch Sesame Street Playlists which are GREAT in my point of view. She actually watched this whole playlist, usually about 20 minutes worth, without touching the keyboard or messing things up even once! (Knock on wood.)



And tonight she asked if she could watch her "People Video". Nice.

Composting

I have been wanting to start a compost "pile" for quite some time now. It is very frustrating to me to throw things in the garbage that I know could be used for another purpose.

But the last time I tried composting my mom and I almost burned down an outhouse and a garage.

Kind of makes you hesitant.

But after following "The Frugal Girl" blog for a couple of months and especially after reading this post: Easy Composting and then clicking over to: Urban Composting



I decided that I should go for it.

Rubbermaid (well, the equivalent store brand) containers were on sale at Shopko for 50% off and I went and picked up the biggest one they had on stock. 45 gallons. Bob drilled holes in the top, on the sides and through the bottom. First I shredded a newspaper to line the bottom.

The next step was to collect the "browns".

Bob and Etta collecting some late falling leaves in the front yard.



In the bucket.



I had been saving veggie waste for a few days and tossed that in.



I am keeping the veggie waste in the sink in a plastic ice cream bucket (that has a lid) until it is full. I then dump it in the big container. After that I fill the bucket with water and dump it out on top of what I just added to the big container. I am not sure if I am doing everything exactly right, but am doing the best I can with the directions that I found.


We are keeping it in what used to be our outside dog kennel. That way the dogs (hopefully) can't get to it and some how chew through the plastic. Knowing our dogs, it really wouldn't surprise me if they tried to do that!



Right now I am not worried about the smell as it is still pretty cool (as in today I think that it got up to at least 60 degrees...) And I really am not too worried about the smell in the summer when the temp gets up over triple digits because, well, we live in Lewiston and I don't think my teeny little compost bin is going to compete with Eko or Potlatch.

I am hoping that this batch might be compost by the end of the growing season (late September) and can be added to Steve and Cathy's garden when they till it up. If not I'm sure that it will be ready to mix in before planting NEXT spring. My other hope is that I can add one or two more bins so that I can have compost in a variety of stages.

If you have any questions or comments about composting, please post. Don't know if I will have any answers but would love to know if I could be doing something different and/or better.