Thursday August 22nd, 2019...Morning Thoughts

Our economical Chevrolet Impala with Coastal Playground Whale license plates.

Things I’m thinking this morning in no special order....

We exchanged our 2017 Chrysler Pacifica van in for a 2018 Chevrolet Impala recently. We hated the Pacifica. It had so many issues even though it was brand new when we bought it. It was the single most worst purchase ever. We were glad to get rid of it even though it could hold our whole family. Our Impala drives like a dream. It is a wonderful car 🚗 and it was still under warranty when we traded it in. We got a few minor things fixed on it, like: the temperature gauge wasn't reading right. Now it is perfect. It saves us gas money and is eco-friendly because it uses less gas as well. Besides helping the environment with our purchase of a more economical vehicle we are also helping support Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute with our purchase of our new license plate. The “Coastal Playground” license plate features a mother gray whale 🐋 and its calf swimming somewhere off the Oregon coast. The plate also has a lighthouse and rolling waves in the distance. Oregon State University’s Marine Mammal Institute will receive $35 of the $40 surcharge on each plate, which will help the school fund research and education projects.

My hair is starting to go grey. I knew this would happen eventually. I don't know if I want to just let it go grey naturally or cover it up and be a red head :) I have always wanted to try henna hair color. Is is more natural than the chemical hair dye and better for your hair. Maybe I will take the plunge.

I want to start growing sprouts 🌱 again. I used to grow different kinds, mostly: mung beans, alfalfa, and broccoli, and lentils. We have a Kitchen Crop 4-tray Seed Sprouter. I loved adding nutritious sprouts to soups, salads, sandwiches, stir-fry, bread, omelets, and more.

Shimmer & Splash The Sparkling World of Sealife by Jim Arnosky Book Review and Giveaway

I received this book for free to facilitate this review. This post has affiliate links.

Shimmer & Splash by Jim Arnosky is a great book about sea life. It has wonderful painted illustrations/penciled sketches and information about the creatures within the book. Some of the pages are giant fold-out pages of life-size fish and other underwater creatures. The contents are very helpful because they show which pages are fold-out.

This book has nearly 200 sea creatures, from a tiny Fiddler Crab to an enormous Orca Whale. This book has dolphins, sting rays, coral, sharks, whales, fish, jelly fish, crabs, etc. I love learning more about the ocean depths and its wildlife.

My favorite parts of the book were about the dolphins and whales because cetaceans are some of my favorite sea creatures because of their intelligence and playfulness. I also enjoyed learning about the coral reef. They are really very interesting, colorful, and have a wide range of shapes. My boys loved the parts about the sharks.We didn't know that there are so many different tail shapes from one shark to the next.

My family enjoyed this book immensely. It has been given an honorary spot on our shelf for ocean/sea related books. Yes, we have a whole bookshelf dedicated to those books, mainly dolphin and whale ones. I would highly recommend it for your home book collection or library! It is great for homeschooling or for the child who loves oceanography or marine-biology too because of all the neat educational information jam packed inside.

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You can purchase Shimmer & Splash on Amazon.com for $10.76 at time of posting.

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Prize: 1 winner will win a copy of the Shimmer & Splash Book free from Sterling Publishing.

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DISCLOSURE/DISCLAIMER: I received product for free to facilitate my review and the opportunity to give another away to my readers. My thoughts are mine and my family's own opinion and have not been altered by anyone else. I did not receive any other compensation for doing this review. This post has affiliate links. Thanks for supporting my blog!

Wordless Wednesday Dress Up with Mom's Funky Whale Socks

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Having a Whale of a Time

My favorite animals are whales, dolphins, and porpoises (cetaceans). Ever since I was a little girl I was fascinated with them. My first time at Sea World was in California when I was 4 years old and I remember how great I felt just watching them at the viewing window glide back and forth in the water so gracefully. In sixth grade my teacher used the Voyage of the Mimi series to teach us and it was filled with great scenes with them spotting whales. I started a newspaper and magazine clipping notebook on them and it was filled quickly since I lived in Alaska at the time. I started reading books on them and writing notes. Every time there was a school paper to write I would try to incorporate them in it if I could. I wanted to be a cetacean biologist (cetologist) or marine biologist. As a child my home teachers from church took me to a museum in Alaska that was featuring mechanical whales and dolphins in an exhibit.

As a teen I wanted one of those Shamu Cruisers to drive around :) I was into science fiction books like Animorphs and Deep Wizardry because of the whales and dolphins in them. I was introduced to a dolphin discussion forum called POD (Place of Dolphins) by one of my Animorphs role playing buddies and that is where I met my husband. He was in Ohio at the time and I was in Utah. We also chatted by messenger and a web camera with video chat. He came to visit me in person the day before my birthday in May of 1999 and in a whirlwind wedding we were married in June of that same year in his parents' backyard. Some say we were crazy, but we were in love and still are! He is the love of my life and I am so glad to have been introduced to POD because I don't know where I would be without him and my 4 wonderful children!

Before I moved to Oregon I went to Newport and went whale watching with my husband with Marine Discovery Tours. We also went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium and I wished we were there when Keiko was so that I could have seen him before they let him back in the wild. We also took a trip to Las Vegas, Nevada and went to the Mirage Hotel where Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat is. Generally that, shopping, a few shows, and my sister's family would be my only reason to visit there because my sister lives and works in Las Vegas now that she is married.

After three of our children were born we lived in Orlando, Florida for a while and spent a lot of time together at Sea World there. I envy the dolphin and whale trainers there because they get to spend their whole day with them and get paid for it. I miss Orlando a lot. We go back and visit every now and then. Oregon is fun too, but I miss living as close to the coast as I used to. Now the Sea World in Orlando has a great new water park called Aquatica and it looks like so much fun!! They have a water slide called the Dolphin Plunge that goes beneath the water and their Commerson's Dolphins swim right beside you while you are shooting through a see through tube. Maybe I will get to go when my children are a little older and I don't have a baby in tow although she probably would love the lazy river.

I saw this awesome dolphin submersible watercraft not to long ago. It is made by Innespace and they just came out with a new model that is a two seater called the Seabreacher! It is really something to go and check out. Boy if I had the money to get one I would in a heartbeat. It is able to perform sustained dives, huge jumps, barrel rolls, and many other amazing acrobatic tricks.