My Soldier's Paper Airplane

This is an Awesome Paper Airplane
... and by adding a rubber band, you can launch it faster!

1- Fold the paper in half, then open it up again

2- fold the corners to the center line and crease

3- fold along the base of your triangle and crease

4- fold the point of your triangle up about 1 inch

5 - crease the triangle point

6- fold the corners down making sure they don't overlap the fold of your small triangle point.

7- turn the plane (1/4 turn to right), and put the folded corners under the folded triangle point

8- make a mountain fold (the center goes up and the edges go down) and crease along the center fold line

9- fold your edge down so it lines up with your folded center fold and crease

10- fold your other edge down so it lines up with your folded center fold and crease

10- fold your other edge down so it lines up with your folded center fold and crease

10- lift up your edges to see your plane!
Your plane is ready to fly!
Try it out or... to make a rubber band launcher, continue below

1- Launcher - add a piece of tape as outlined with grey lines

2- Launcher - add tape on other sided and punch with a hole punch as shown

3 - launcher - put rubber band into hole

4- launcher - place one end of rubber band through other end of rubber band

6 - launcher - pull on the rubber band that is in the other end and pull until the end is tight 

7- put finger through rubber band and pull back plane. Let go of plane and off it goes!

Happy Flying!

My Soldier's Retired!

Just gotta praise God and say, "Hallelujah, my Soldier's retired from the Air Force!"

1995

2015

We've been blessed to meet lots of wonderful people and see some beautiful country!

On to new adventures! :)   I'm excited to see what God has in store for us!

Life just got SUPER BUSY!

We are blessed to have 3 wonderful children in our home now. 
It's been a wonderfully blessed and busy transition for all of us!
      

Supercross!

Had a super fun time with my Handsome Soldier last month and the Supercross race in Oakland, CA!

To make it a little more fun, he picked me up from the airport in his new Chevy!

 

Luv ya and miss ya!  

See ya soon!

A kayaking we will go!

This year, we decided to get a kayak for our birthdays and we finally found this one on Craigslist. It's a tandem Kona by Hobie Cat which can fit 3 people.   

My Soldier loves fishing and has always wanted a boat.  I can be his trolling motor, get a tan, and a workout all while hanging out with my handsome soldier while he fishes, it's perfect! :)  

We tried it out on Memorial Day and we both liked it!

Now for our anniversary we want to get 2 single  Ocean Kayak Frenzy's.  Talk about a party!!!

Celtic Knot table and benches

It's finally finished!!!  I started this a couple of years ago in North Dakota before my soldier's deployment to Iraq, 2 TDY's (temporary military move), a PCS (permanent change of station), etc.   I love it and can't wait to use it outside in the mornings and evenings!  

It was so much fun to find the designs, tweak them a bit, make them large enough to fit on the furniture and then wood burn them... I love the smell of burning pine!   I have another bench all cut out but I need to find another Celtic knot design to put on it and I need to find a wood burner to borrow.  :)    That might be a while before it gets done.   A friend is borrowing my Kreg Jig Pocket hole kit so until it's back... no rush!

The line above is completely connected... one line...  how many times does it take you to complete it without messing up?

Bree, I think this table would be perfect for some games!!!   Y'all wanna visit California? :) ;)

The left one has one line, the right bench has 2 lines

 

Have fun following the lines!!!

...

Redneck Roses

My handsome soldier brought me a surprise the other day when he got home!

Redneck Roses

Sang By Tracy Byrd

Not so long ago On his way home from work
He'd stop by the side of the road
Step out of that old beat up Ford That he drove
And he'd walk around searchin' the ground
For a handful of wildflower blooms
Thinkin' of where he'd be soon there with her

She called them redneck roses 'Cause that's what they were
A simple gift of love From a country boy to his girl
She called them redneck roses They didn't cost a dime
But they brought a smile to her face Every time

The next morning the poppies opened up when it got bright outside!

Our 3 clucky girls!

We finally did it!!!! 

We got three little girls!  

 Their names, Lacy, Penny, and Henny...  

Lacy is an Americauna, Penny is a Rhode Island Red and Henny is a Bardrock!
I can't wait for fresh eggs!

UPDATE... (2 weeks later)

Something ate all of them last night, it got through the 2" holes in the fence and took 2 of the chickens all the way out through those 2" holes too... yuck. Now my Soldier's 's ready to go huntin for some varmit.  Next time we get chickens, they won't have names... well, maybe they will all be called "Cluck".    Maybe now they're runnin around heaven eating up all the bugs :)

Hair Cut!

This weekend my handsome soldier cut 5 inches off my hair!!!!!  

 Isn't he awesome? 

I don't remember let last time I paid for a haircut!   

My lawn is TOO big.

We live on 5 acres and mow less than half (to keep the weeds down.... I hate those stickers).   We are also slowly clearing out the big rocks as we mow new sections of the property.
We've got lots of rain (4 inches) since I mowed last, and the grass has grown about 6 inches.
 It took me 3 hours on a riding lawnmower yesterday and 1 3/4 hours with the weed wacker today...  results, it looks better but my arms feel like jello.     This is my kind of workout.. much better than going to the gym :)
If I got paid minimum wage.. I think it's $14.00/hr...  I'd have earned $66.50.  
What ya think?  Can I have a raise please :) 

French Fries - Idaho Spud Size

My Dad spoiled me when I was home last month.  He sent me home with some spuds. We sliced one up and it made 6 batches of french fries... yep, with one potato!!! Yep that's right!

Eat your heart out McDonalds French fry fans!

These fries bearly fit in my 10" cast iron pan!

That's one good lookin spud!

Ever seen a spud this big?

Aaron, thanks for the idea of Fries!!!
Ok, Bud... I want a picture when you get yours cooked up!!

Can you see it?

Do you ever look at something and see something different than normal?    

At first, my Soldier couldn't see what I saw. He humored me and took a picture of the glass on our wood stove.. then looking at the picture, he saw it!

Do you see what we saw?

STOP

Don't scroll down yet......

Tell me what you see!!!

...

OK, here's what we saw!

An old man thinking... his right hand rubbing his brow.
He's standing, looking to our left with a big nose. 
See his vest and jacket? He even has on glasses!
... now look back at the top picture, can see it now?

...

My Dirty Saturday!

Dirty... yeah!!!

Day 1
We finally got our garden tilled up!  
I'd studied out how I wanted to do my garden a few months ago. I determined how much space I REALLY needed while allowing the garden squares to be rotated correctly.  I'll have one square empty each year to use as my compost pile :).. I think ;)

We are making our garden on the side of a rocky hill in our back yard. This will hopefully be the best spot as we already have a 6-foot fence around the back yard which should keep the deer out. We first used a shovel to dig up the dirt and get out most of the HUGE rocks. Then we used our rototiller and finally smoothed it all out with a rake. I used the rocks that we got out of the now soft dirt to make the walls for the tier which is 4 x 16 feet (actually by 15 but who wants to dig out another 4 feet ;). 

We got the second tier tilled and it's 4x17!  I just need to finish the rocks around the edge :)

Day 2
I got the rocks put around the second tier!

I'll get some of my neighbors aged sheep manure to mix in with the dirt before I plant!

Now I need to go get my seeds!
Yeah!!!

Thanks Soldier for all your hard work :) ILY

Winter, water - Fun!

Can you imagine kayaking in a mountain reservoir during January in short sleeves? I never would have, until this weekend!   My husband and I borrowed our sweet friend's tandem Kayak and went up to a lake which she likes to refer to as 'Lyn's Lake'!!!    We got up there about noon and paddled upstream until we could go no further.  There was ice and frost/snow at the edges of the creek, fallen trees to paddle under, many different kinds of ducks, and a quiet peaceful beauty that was a little like heaven.  It was cool in the shade but in the sunshine, ... wow... amazing!

We went from one end to the other, including David walking on the dam!

What a peaceful beautiful day!   Thanks Lyn for letting us borrow your kayak! 

Lyn....Did you see the sign in the picture?   Computers are cool  :)

 After we were done kayaking on Saturday, we bought me new hiking shoes! 

We got to try out my new shoes on Monday as we hiked along the South Yuba River State Park trails by highway 49.   We actually went down a 'not labeled' trail to the beautiful, clear South Fork Yuba River.

We then hiked down along the river.... over, under, up, down, and around the rocks, My soldier checked out the water temperature... oops, the rock was slippery,   to the 'old cable bridge' and hiked back up the Jones Bar Trail to the car.

I'm thankful God created this beautiful world for us to enjoy and take care of!

.... Do you remember which day of the creation it was that God separated the water from the land?
      I get to teach the kids about the creation on Sunday!!!

An awesome new game - Ratuki

For Christmas, we got a $8.00 card game called Ratuki. 

It's a fast paced, fun game for 2-5 players.   
It has simple rules and we had a ton of fun playing together. The chaos is like a combination of slap jack and spoons!!!

The toughest part was keeping my Soldier in his chair so he didn't cream us. 

My brother-in-law and his wife liked it so much, that they bought Ratuki so they can play it when they get back home.
Since we had lots of family around, we got rid of the chairs and used our 2 decks (I drew a line across all my cards for easier sorting after each round). We ended up placing 5 stickers down the center of the table for the piles to be more organized (10 piles were impossible to manage).  Each round we'd all move one space to our left to make it a little more fair to the people who got stuck on the end of the table or were the lucky ones in the center.  We ended the game by having the lowest two scoring players for each round get eliminated until the final champion, my brother-in-law with his new deck of cards, won this AWESOME GAME!

I'd stick to just 5 players... well, may six, or just decide on a limited number of piles on the table and use two decks. Make it a party!

Go get the game, invite over some friends, have them bring the snacks, and let the fun begin! :)

Our 2011 Christmas Card

Our year in a nutshell!

We started 2011 in Meridian, MS.

In May, we officially moved from Minot, ND to northern CA

and bought a home with 5 acres. 

 

We sold our N.D. home last December, this spring it and our rental property (the barn shaped one below) got flooded and will be knocked down soon.

My handsome soldier will continue to instruct in the MC-12 at Beale AFB.  

We went to Alabama for 5 weeks of Squadron Officer School.

I have stayed busy sewing

and have opened up an online  store at  aSimpleDimple.etsy.com. 

I also started blogging a little bit asimpledimple.blogspot.com.

At church I was the Gospel Doctrine teacher for 6 months and

just got called as the Primary 1st Counselor!

We’ve been very blessed and look forward to hopefully

staying put for a couple of years! 

May God bless y’all!