Smelly Towel - review

"Smelly Towel" sounds like a product that would... well... stink, doesn't it? Actually, it's the opposite. It's meant to make your towels smell fresh and clean. I hadn't noticed that my towels were particularly smelly. I mean I do wash them regularly! But when I was offered a free bottle for review as a member of MamaBzz, my daughter thought we ought to try it. The bottle we received sells for $16.99 and it didn't seem very big to me for that price at first. I opened the bottle to see what it was like. It is a fine powder with a pleasant citrusy scent, and the label said to use one tablespoon for a load of towels instead of detergent. I realized then that the one bottle would go a lot further than I thought! So I tried it in the laundry. One tablespoon full (measured in the cap per the directions) with NO detergent. The towels didn't come out smelling citrusy like the product. Instead they just smelled good and clean! Like they had been dried in the sunshine on a clothesline. I was impressed!

Camping on the St. Joe

Turns out, as I've recently discovered, if you keep a man in town over the weekend, he's gonna go in to work, at least a little while. So if the weather forecast is promising and the man says, "Wanna go camping?" I say, "Let's go!"

This past weekend we stayed at a Forest Service campground along the beautiful St. Joe River. This late in the season, the campgrounds are pretty quiet... perfect for relaxing.

Lyle's definition of relaxing always involves a drive, and he especially loves twisty mountain roads. If I can manage to avoid getting carsick (and I've learned some tricks about that over the years), I enjoy the scenery!

The St. Joe is so clear we could see the rocks on the bottom from even this far above it!

Our sweet Cookie loves to participate in all our adventures.

We think that if the air currents were just right, it's possible that our truck could fly!

Schleich - review

Last year at Christmas-time my parents hit upon the perfect gift for my animal-loving daughter. They carefully selected several animal figurines from their local farm store and wrapped them up individually for her, then put them all in a larger gift box. Becky had so much fun unwrapping and discovering each animal-- which have provided many hours of imaginative play since. My parents were so impressed with the quality of the animals that they bought one for several of the other grandchildren as stocking stuffers. The other grandchildren, who aren't quite as into animals as Becky is, absolutely loved them as well! So "Grammy" got a catalog which each of the grandchildren has pored over and marked with their favorites. Now Grammy has an on-going wishlist for several special occasions to come!

Needless to say, we were very excited to be selected to review the Schleich brand for the TOS Crew. I hadn't told Becky ahead of time that we would be getting a package, but when it came she immediately recognized the brand-name on the packing tape. Mean mom that I am, I drew out the suspense awhile longer, telling her that package was for me, and she couldn't open it! After a few minutes, I cut the tape and drew out the animals one-by-one and gave them to her. I had wondered if we would get any duplicates to what she already had, but we didn't.

We received an okapi (the funny-looking dude in the back with the long ears), a gnu and gnu calf (looks a little like a skinny buffalo), a donkey, an Asian elephant calf, a Swabian-Hall piglet, a Dartmoor pony, and a Przewalski's horse.

Becky was especially thrilled to re-unite the new donkey with it's baby, which she already had in her collection.

Included in the box was a catalog of all the animals available. Becky had an older catalog that I picked up several years ago, but she had literally worn it out from paging it through it so many times-- as in, it was falling apart! She's put in plenty of time with the new catalog already, and can tell you exactly which animals she owns and which ones she would like next.

I didn't take the time to look them all up, but this is a picture of her complete collection, as of now. Of course, her birthday is coming up... so she's hoping to add to it. We'll just have to see!

I have been impressed with how realistic and durable the animals are. Great as toys or collectible figurines, either one. The only thing I don't like is that the scale is not the same for all them. (See how the German Shepherd in the middle of the picture is bigger than the baby elephant?) However, that does not bother my daughter at all.

Schleich animals are available at local retail stores. Around here I've seen them at Target, Fred Meyer, and D and B Farm Supply. Prices range from $2-3 for the smallest animals to $15 or so for the larger ones. I have also seen various sets available as well. There is a store locator on the Schleich website.

Mr. Moose Goes to Town

We only live about 2 miles from the print shop where Lyle works, so he usually comes home for lunch. Today as we were finishing lunch, his cell phone rang. That's not unusual either, as his co-workers often have questions that need immediate answers. But he wasn't on the phone long this time. He hung up and told us, "Loren says there's a bull moose over by city hall, down the street from the print shop."

We immediately sprang up and tore out to the truck, barefoot girls, dog, and all. Even though it was only 2 miles we were afraid the moose would be long gone by the time we got there.

 

He wasn't. He was just strolling around the neighborhood... inspecting objects in people's back yards... grazing on whatever looked appealing... wrestling with small trees... and blithely ignoring the paparazzi!

He was happy to find a pear tree just loaded with juicy ripe pears. He helped himself to several within easy reach on his side of the fence...

 

...before wandering off to visit other neighbors in the vicinity. 

We thought it would be fun to just follow him around town the rest of the afternoon, but as we had "promises to keep, and miles to go before we sleep..." we reluctantly bid him farewell and went about our business. 

We wonder how long it will be before he finds his way back across the bridge over the river to the forest where he lives? 

We love living in the Northwest!

Happy Birthday, Mother!

Recently I came across this sweet picture of my mother and her older sister celebrating their first and second birthdays respectively. Aunt Donnie's birthday is earlier in September and Mother's is today, so they were just over a year apart in age. Mother says they always celebrated their birthdays together growing up. They went out to lunch to celebrate this year. I wonder if anyone made them tiny cakes?

What's interesting is that 10 years ago, one of my sisters had a baby boy on Mother's birthday. (Happy Birthday, Jamie!) The next year, my other sister had twins on Aunt Donnie's birthday. (A belated Happy Birthday to Aunt Donnie, and Elizabeth and Garrett, too!) September is the most populated month for birthdays in our family.