Sunday Brunch

It’s good to see again.  It’s been a short week since we met last Monday.  Do you ever feel like those short weeks are actually the longest?

Scott left Tuesday morning for a meeting in Gresham on Wednesday.  Two more days of road tripping for him.  Unfortunately the weather turned bad on Wednesday and it took them eight hours to drive home, which would normally have been a five hour drive.  It looks like our Spring weather has been delayed for a while longer.

I had meetings Tuesday night and Wednesday night. Two meals out took its toll on my “eating good” this week.  I can’t pass up dessert, especially when it’s a double chocolate brownie.

Scotty came to visit Thursday night.  He was headed to Medford for some fun time with his friends, but the weather and the roads were bad so he decided to make a pit stop and stay the night at our house.  It’s always fun when the boys stay.

Scott is teaching a HazMat class in Keno this weekend, so he is working the 8-5 shift.  I love it when he works those hours because, while he is doing it, he understands the work schedule I have and why I don’t want to do a whole lot when I get home  from work.

I am proud to report that I finished out Hawaii scrapbook yesterday.  I plan to post a blog on this project and show a few of the pages.  Do you have any projects that are weighing heavy on your mind that you just can’t find the time to finish?  Sometimes you just have to push aside all the other things you should be doing and take some time for yourself, to accomplish those things that usually take a backseat to everything else.

Speaking of working on projects, this turn in the weather has made it easier to finish some other projects around the house.  This morning I spent two solid hours cleaning out our computer desk.  This included four drawers of file cabinets.  It had reached a point where the drawers were so full that they were literally breaking.  It’s not my favorite thing to do, office work, on my day off.  Boxing up old files, making new files, etc., ugh not my idea of fun.  It’s ok when I’m getting paid to do it, but I have a huge list around here of things I would rather be doing.  Now, at least I can cross this one off for another year.

Remember a few weeks ago when I told you that the weather was so nice around here?  Things have changed. 

The middle of the day and the thermometer reads 18 degrees.  It’s actually warmer today than the last few days.  One thing is for sure, Mack and Daisy love the snow.  They played for a solid nine hours yesterday.  Every time I looked out at them, they were wrestling in the snow.  Now we have the trails all over the yard.

The news says more snow for this week.  I never know when to trust the weatherman.  It doesn’t matter what he says, it’s going to do what it’s going to do.  I just know I need to keep my snow boots out for a little longer.

I need to get going.  I have my bookclub meeting tonight and I still have to bake my apple/blackberry pie.  I love bookclub.  We always have good food (that’s why I skipped the scone today) and great conversation. 

Have a great week.  Hopefully we will talk again before next Sunday.

Women with Bait–Saga on the Salmon River

For the second year, a group of us local girls participated in the Women with Bait Steelhead fishing tournament in Riggins, Idaho.  I never fully understood the point of fishing until we went last year.  I finally understood what it felt like to literally not think of anything for a long period of time.  It's amazing, and was much needed this year.

Heather, Cathy, Laurie, and I (oh yeah and our husbands too) left early Thursday morning to make the long trek across the state.  Heidi and her husband Luke were also supposed to go with us, but due to unforseen circumstances, they had to cancel at the last minute.  We were really sad that they weren't able to go.  The drive took about 11 hours, including losing an hour crossing into the Mountain time zone.  Girls rode in one car and boys rode in the other car.  Trust me, I think us women solved just about all the world's problems in the amount of time we were in the car together.

Friday morning we were up before the dawn.  The fish were ready to be caught and we were ready to be doing the catching.  We met up with our guide Tony and our bait boy Casey.  Casey was also our bait boy last year and he is quite entertaining when he changes the words to songs.  That's a story for another day.
 

 Tony, Casey, and the boat dog Ringo (aka Bingo, Tingo, Lingo, Dingo, or anything else with an "ingo") did everything they could to make sure that we had a great day. 



About ten minutes into the trip, Cathy caught the first fish on our boat. She would go on to catch a second fish. Little tip: hold the fish out from you when taking a picture and it will look bigger.  Cathy ended up catching the largest fish on our boat this year at 32".  The current tournament record is 35.5".



Next fish caught was by Heather.  Heather would hold the record for the day with four fish caught.  Last year she caught one fish.  Tournament rules say she could only keep two, which worked out fine because the other two she caught were native and she had to put them back.  Tournament record so far is ten fish caught in one day by the same girl.



Laurie was up third.  She only caught one fish for the day, but it was a respectable size.



Laurie's sister Paula caught the fourth fish on the boat.  She lives outside Boise and this was her first year in the tournament.

In case you haven't noticed the one quirky fact about our catching skills, we caught fish in alphabetical order of first names (crazy that the same thing happened last year!).  So guess who that leaves to catch the next fish.  No pressure though.  Well actually there was a lot of pressure to catch a fish.  Tony and Casey did all they could to try to make it happen.  I am sad to report that I did not catch a fish this year.  I am a little disappointed, but I had a great time anyway.  I figure that I had the sophmore slump and I am planning my redemption for next year!

There were three other boats of women that went out the same day as us and their boats caught a total of three, two, and one fish that day.  I am just so glad that we weren't on a boat that only caught one fish the entire day!



Tally at the end of the day, eight fish caught, six keepers.  The boys had their hands full cleaning and sealing up fish when we got back to the house.

The fishing crew:



Brian and Paula



Heather and Chad



Scott and I



Ed and Cathy



Laurie and Carl



We have already made our reservations for next year and requested Tony and Casey again.  Hopefully Heidi and Luke will be able to go.  Next year we are going the last week of the tournament.  We are scheduled to fish on Friday and then go the fish dance and award presentations on Saturday night.  The boys can't wait for the fish dance!  I can't wait to be back on the boat, thinking about nothing.

Monday Brunch

Yes, I know we usually meet on Sundays, but due to the holiday, and some travel, we had to postpone until today.

It’s great to see you again.  I hope you had a good week.  Me, I had a great week.  I am so thankful that today is a holiday.  I desperately needed the extra day to catch up.  Do you ever feel that way; that you need a vacation after your vacation?

After we met last week, I traveled to Sunriver on Monday to meet about the 2012 Oregon HazMat Conference.  It seems like it is so far off, but we are now less than one year away.  I drove north through blizzard like weather.  It snowed so hard until about 15 miles south of Sunriver.  Once we got there, there wasn’t a speck of snow anywhere to be seen.  We purposely went that day because it would the same time of the year that we are having the actual conference next year.  Everything looked great, and everyone had fairly easy travel to get there.  It was just a one day meeting, so we all traveled home Monday night.  Little did we know that sometime between 5:00pm on Monday and 5:00am on Tuesday, the area received 10-12 inches of snow and basically shut down everything in Bend and Sunriver.  I am really happy that we didn’t have to travel on that day, but I am worried about next year!

This was a short week at work for me.  I only had to go into the office on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Don’t you hate those short weeks that actually seem longer than a regular week.

We left early Thursday morning to head to Idaho.  For the second time, I participated with a group of fabulous women in the Women with Bait Steelhead fishing tournament.

We had so much fun and have already made our reservations for next year!  Tune in tomorrow night for the highlights of the fishing tournament.

Today’s is President’s Day.  It’s one of those holidays at work that we can work and take the day off at another time.  I fully intended to work today.  It’s always so quiet on those holidays, and we tend to get a lot done.  That idea went out the window when we got home last night.  After four very long days, I decided to stay home and get some stuff done.  Before meeting up with you, I went to town to run several errands, get groceries, pick up the dogs at the vet’s office, and try to catch up with the laundry.  I am happy to report that most of these things got done.  I also managed to fit in a nap and a movie.

Tomorrow is back to reality.  Work is waiting.  It’s always an adventure to see what missing three days of work brings.  It looks like our coffee cups are empty and the bill has been paid.  Have a great week!

Pencil in a day to be Romantic?

I have never been a fan of being told that you have to be romantic just because it’s February 14th.  So for the other 364 days of the year you can be a schmuck?  Please don’t buy me flowers because it’s expected.  Yeah, that’s romantic.  Nothing says love like a dozen roses that you ordered at the last minute and paid five times the regular price for.  I am being honest when I say that Valentine’s Day could come and go and not be acknowledged and I would be perfectly happy.  (Note: this doesn’t give my husband an out for not buying me flowers or being romantic any other day of the year!)

Seven years ago today, Scott started a tradition in our relationship, although he didn’t exactly know it at the time.

This was the day we got engaged.  Scott took me on a surprise weekend to McCloud, CA and we rode the Mt. Shasta Dinner Train.  We would be married six months later.

The next Valentine’s Day, I thought it would be fun if I planned a weekend away but didn’t tell Scott where we were going. We went to Bend and went on a moonlight snowshoeing adventure.

Not wanting to break our new tradition, Scott planned the next year. We went to Brookings, via the Redwoods.

The next year was my turn. We spent the weekend in San Francisco.

Not to be outdone, Scott put a lot of thought into planning our next trip. We took the ferry to Victoria, BC.

It was back to me to plan our fifth romantic weekend away.  I thought it would be fun to go back to McCloud and ride the dinner train again.  I had heard that the train was going to stop running and I thought it would be fun to ride it one last time.  Two days before Valentine’s Day, the train people called to say they had too much snow and the train was not going to go.  Weekend cancel, not to be rescheduled.

Last year, before any planning could take place, we were invited to go to Idaho for a couple’s weekend/girls fishing trip.  Scott jumped at that so last year we went to Idaho.

I don’t know if we will get back to planning our romantic surprise Valentine’s weekends now that we have started our Idaho fishing weekends.  One thing is for sure, surprise weekends or not, my husband will always be my Valentine!

Sunday Brunch

Isn’t nice that we get to spend this small amount of time together every week.  I am glad that we can take some time to catch up.

If we were meeting for brunch today I would probably order a non-fat, sugar free vanilla latte.  I know, it sounds kinda stuffy, but after the holidays, the parties, the dinners, the football games….. somehow a few extra pounds managed to find their way to my butt.  Now I am working on shedding those pounds.  It’s back to planning the healthy dinners, taking leftovers for lunch, enjoying a banana smoothie each morning for breakfast (instead of the bagel with garlic cream cheese from the local bakery), and packing healthy snacks to munch on throughout the day.  Honestly, I don’t think this is torture.  Actually, it’s easier to pre-plan out the week and do the grocery shopping so that it’s one last thing to think about on those busy days.

We would talk about books and what we are reading.  This past week has been a very productive book reading week.  I finished up my bookclub book.  This month we read “Room” by Emma Donogue.  Not my favorite, but not the worst book I have ever read.  It will go on my shelf, but probably won’t get picked up again.  My friend Kim that I work with gave me a book for Christmas.  “Black Heels to Tractor Wheels” by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.  I follow her blog faithfully and knew that she was writing a book about how she met her cowboy husband, their courtship, and their first year of marriage.  I knew once I picked up this book, I would not be able to put it down.  I was right.  I planned my week so that I would have Saturday basically free to sit down with the book.  I can count on one hand how many books I have purposely sat down with to spend the day reading cover to cover.  This book would be one of them.  I loved it!  I will keep my copy, but have already ordered another copy to pass on to my mom.  Last night I started my third book of the week.  “The Secret Year” by Jennifer Hubbard.  This book is a fairly easy read.  It’s the story of a secret relationship between two high school students; a rich girl and a boy from the wrong side of the tracks.  She is killed in a car accident early on in the book and her brother gives the boy a journal she kept during the year they were together.  It follows him reliving the year they spent together through the letters she wrote to him in her journal.  So far it’s really good.

I have to report that I spent a lot of time this week on my computer.  I finally made the decision to break down and order an IPod.  I have a cheap Mp3 player that I have used for the past three years.  It’s nice, but it doesn’t hold much music and I can’t listen to it without earphones.  I have spent probably 20 hours this week trying to get my music all lined out on iTunes before I even load it on to the IPod.  This has been quite the project and I hope to get it finished today so that I can listen to it on my drive to my meeting in Bend tomorrow.

I guess the biggest news this week is this:

Blue arrived in Lakeview sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning.  When the dealer came to work Friday morning, there she was parked out front.  Scott, who is usually calm, cool, and collected, called me at work so excited that I almost couldn’t understand what he was saying. 

A few hours later we were on our way to Lakeview.  After a short speech from the dealer, we were headed out.  The best part of the trip was getting to see Scotty’s place and eating dinner out with him.

There is something about buying a car in a small town.  We were at the dealership all of a half an hour.  No paper signing, no haggling, no drama.  Scott gave the dealer the down payment and they are going to wait until next weekend to sign the paperwork in case there is a better sale price over President’s Weekend.  If all goes well, this was the best car buying experience ever!

I can’t stay much longer.  I have a lot to do to get ready for our fishing trip to Idaho this week.  I expect to have some pretty good stories to share with you next Sunday.  Give everyone a hug from me.

Sunday Brunch

So, we meet again.  I hope you had a good week.  This week flew by at our house.  I spent the first part of the week in Seaside at a conference.  I love the beach!  (Just in case I haven’t told you enough).  Because of the conference, I only had to work in the office three days.  That makes the week go by fast.  Don’t you love those short weeks?

Friday night we had dinner with four of the other five couples that we will be going to Idaho with in a couple of weeks.  We had so much fun.  Scott and I don’t go out with friends very often.  It’s not that we don’t like to, it just doesn’t ever seem to work out.  Like I said, we had such a great time.  It made me think that maybe after we go to Idaho, we should invite everyone out to our house for dinner and maybe game night.  Do you have friends that you get together with on a regular basis?  I think it’s really healthy to get together and just have a good laugh.  I hope we can keep this up somehow.

This weekend is one of the very few weekends when we don’t have anything specifically scheduled.  Scott had to work on Saturday so I planned on spending the day cleaning the house.  That way we could enjoy Superbowl Sunday relaxing.  So Saturday I got up, sat on the couch, watched three movies (the wonderful Hallmark Channel Countdown to Valentine’s Day movies), took a shower, spent two hours going to the grocery store (I learned that the first Saturday of the month, which also happens to be the Saturday before Superbowl, is not the best time to shop.  Plus, we usually go together and Scott is in charge of the cart while I pick out the groceries. He unloads the cart, while I bag the groceries at the other end.)  My routine was all thrown off and I needed to take a break once I got home. Then I watch another two Hallmark movies, made dinner for myself, and watched  another Hallmark movie.  Needless to say, no cleaning got done yesterday.

Today is Superbowl Sunday.  It’s actually been a very productive day at our house.

Scott spent part of the morning putting together our new TV stand.  There were some touch-and-go moments putting all the electronic stuff back together. 

Scott’s next job was to make the appetizers for Superbowl.  He, of course, made his famous Jalapeno Poppers.

Before:

After:

Are you like me and you watch the Superbowl for the commercials and the entertainment.  What’s your favorite Superbowl commercial? 

It’s been crazy weather around here.  It’s the first part of February and the thermometer got up to 64 degrees today.  All of the snow is gone.  I thought I would go out today and take a picture of the dogs enjoying the sunshine.  It sounded a lot easier than it actually was.  Daisy loves to have her picture taken.  She has her spot on the front porch steps that she sits on to have her picture taken.  Mack, well Mack is a whole other story.  I have no doubt that he has ADHD.  He cannot sit still for anything.  If I do manage to get him to sit, I can’t say anything or he will immediately get up and come towards me. 

Take One:

No Mack, stay means stay.

Take Two:

Ok, so at least he is on the steps with Daisy.

Take Three:

Oh look, a butterfly!

I bet you didn’t notice the first signs of spring in these pictures.  Last fall, my friend Kate gave me a whole bunch of flower bulbs.  I planted them in my washbasin thinking that they would come up in the spring and fill the washbasin.  After they were done blooming, I would dig them up and store them for replanting again in the fall.  Some of the bulbs are a little confused at what time of the year it is.

The worst part of all of it is that we get all excited that the good weather is on the way, but we know in our hearts that winter is no way over.  According to the groundhog, spring is coming early, but I’m pretty sure it won’t be this early.

Well, I hope you have a great week.  We’ll talk again soon.