The ice cream truck

Yesterday evening, right before dinner, Jason and I were sitting in the living room when we heard the familiar music of an ice cream truck!  The ice cream truck has not been by our house since we lived here so Jason rushed for his wallet and the twins and I ran down the road in our bare feet to catch up with it!  Who cares that it came at dinner time....we just pushed dinner later by an hour.....and the boys thought it was the coolest thing that we actually caught him.  Jason claims he hasn't saw me move that fast in a long time hahahaha. 

As the boys and I sat out on the back deck enjoying our ice treats, I couldn't help but remember living in Germany when the boys were little and we would meet the local ice cream man almost daily.  He  made home made ice cream and sold us a cone for 50 euro cents.....I know crazy, it only cost 50 cents and was delicious.  This ice cream truck was definitely not that quality but we had a great time and we sure hope he makes a trip by our house again soon!

Ahh love when the boys just get to enjoy the little things that make childhood so great!

Fettuccine ...oh my!

This past weekend Jason's step-dad and I decided to try and make homemade pasta.  Since neither one of us had ever done it before it was quite funny to watch.  Learning the technique to getting square sheets as you put it through the press took a little bit of time.  We were not sure what consistency the dough should be so it took a little while and experimenting with adding flour to find the right dough make up that would flatten the best.  There are only a few ingredients and it turned out to be easier then we expected.  The pasta was fantastic......everyone gobbled it up.  It's definitely something I foresee myself making often in the future.....especially with the cookbook that gives so many recipes for different types of pasta. 

The Christmas gift of pasta press and fettuccine cutter turned out to a lot of laughs and makes great pasta!

Salmon Fishing

I grew up fishing but yesterday was the first time that I have ever been salmon fishing.  We packed up the RV and headed down to the Russian River for the weekend in hopes of having some fun fishing.....and that we did.  The first day there were hardly any fish (we saw others catch them but we came out empty handed).  Father's Day morning was a completely different story though....there were literally thousands of them in the water.  We ended up with a total of 8 fish but laughed so hard in the morning trying to get them it was crazy!  I was in charge of the net.....for anyone who has never netted a salmon before it's a much harder job then you would think.  They move crazy fast so picture me running through the river (with Josh on my back) trying to net the fish who is trying desperately not to be netted hahaha.  The twins even hooked a few on their own and brought them in.  The salmon are crazy because not only do they fight if you catch them they fly out of the water sometimes too! I will definitely be buying chest waders before I go out again as your boots get extremely heavy once they fill up with water! 

I think we will head out again this week.....destination undetermined at this point......to try our luck at it again.  Hopefully the next trips brings as many laughs as the first!

Lucky

Sometimes you just sit back and realize how truly lucky you are.  For me this happened last night.  These last few weeks of Jason being gone have been dragging and by far the hardest out of the entire time.  The boys are anxious for his return and the days seem to be dragging by.  The three little guys have been behaving great but I think it's just being in the final leg that makes it the hardest.  The one thing that causes me anxiety when there is just one adult in the house is getting sick.....when I start to feel sickness coming on I worry about the baby....the bigger boys can look after themselves somewhat if I need to lie down for an hour or two but the baby can't.  Last week I was under the weather and it made me realize just how great the friends I have made here truly are and how thankful I should be for them.  I had friends volunteering to come over if things got worse, friends dropping off homemade bread, friends having me for dinner, friends dropping off cake pops, friends having coffee with me and friends just getting me out of the house to enjoy time with the boys.  I am soo very lucky to have such good friends....we may not have been friends for a long time but these friends are dear to me and have become good friends very quickly.  I really appreciate these great friendships I have at this current posting and at all our past postings.  I want all my dear friends to realize just how much I value them! These acts of kindness that my friends have shown me I intend to pay them forward!

A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.  ~Douglas Pagels

Book Date

I haven't been feeling well lately so we have been kinda laying low.  The boys and I ventured out to Barnes and Noble to browse the books and get some cookies for a treat today.  We spend a good 45 minutes looking at different books that the boys can now read on their own.  They are moving up to starting chapter books that they read independently which is new for us.  So we had to first find some that were of interest to them and then see if they were at the right reading level.  I love how they are as into books as I am.  We have tonnes of chapter books we have read to them in the last year or two but I feel nothing an easy way to inspire someone to want to read is by going to the store and letting choose the perfect book for themself.  We even bought Josh the pout pout fish book in a board book. 

Trains

As I have written about many times before, the twins have loved playing with trains for almost 5 years now.  I was cooking dinner and I heard Zachary singing and when I looked over to see what he was doing he and Joshua were playing trains on the floor together.  Mathew joined in shortly after and it was so nice to see them just enjoying the trains together.

Tardiness

I am usually quite punctual...there is the exceptional time I run behind but I would say 99% of the time I am either on time or early.  At least this way my friends know that if I am late something legitimate came up hahaha.  I was going over to a friends one evening last week and to my surprise there was a moose at the neighbors house hahaha I never thought I would have to tell someone that I am running late because there is a moose on the street. 

Oh and as a side note....that is a full height chain link fence.....that the moose just STEPPED over!  It's tummy cleared the regular height chain link fence hahahaha